Rewriting In Translation With Reference To Living History And Its Two Chinese Translations

Lefevere’s rewriting theory provides a new perspective for translation study, enriches the content of translation theory, and broadens the scope of translation study. Translation study is far beyond linguistic level and the political, historical, cultural and social factors should also be taken into consideration.Underpinned by rewriting theory,the thesis explores into the two Chinese translations of Hilary Clinton’s autobiography,Living History,namely,its first Chinese version,Huo Chu Li Shi(活出历史,‘live out/through history’,hereafter referred to as the Taiwan version),published by China Times in Taiwan;and its second Chinese version,Qin Li Li Shi(亲历历史,‘first-hand experience of history’,hereafter the mainland version),published by the Yilin Press in mainland China.By analyzing similarities and differences of the two versions and how they manage to rewrite the original work,this paper further explores various kinds of forces behind the translators’decision-making process and their impact on translation practice.It aims at demonstrating how ideologies,patronage,and poetics play an important role in translation as rewriting and how the social-cultural conditions of the target language manifest their influences on translation activities.This paper finds that lots of rewriting traces can be found in both versions. Most rewriting in the mainland version is out of ideological and patronal considerations, while rewriting in the Taiwan translation is also laden with power manipulation traces and is greatly influenced by the mainstream poetics in Taiwan.