On Feminist Interventionism In Zhang Ling’s Translation Of The Well Of Loneliness

The connection between translation and culture has been recognized by people since the “cultural turn” in the 1980 s. Thus gender issue, as an important part of cultural studies, becomes naturally combined with translation. As a product of the alliance between feminism and translation, western feminist translation denies original text centered or author centered point, but instead advocates an equal status between the author and the translator. It holds the view that “fidelity” should be directed towards writing project instead of the reader or the author. Feminist translation provided a brand new angle from the gender perspective to translation studies. In translation practice, feminist translation emphasizes subjectivity of feminist translators through intervening and making changes to the source texts in accordance with feminist values. Feminist translators take interventionist measures to make their identities visible by rewriting the unpalatable texts. Specific methods taken are generally selecting source text, supplementing, prefacing, footnoting, “hijacking” and the affirmation of translator’s signature.Because of the discrepancy between China and the west in their respective history, culture, as well as the evolvement of feminism, Chinese female translators take mild interventionist strategies compared to those radical and strong translation measures taken by western feminist translators. However, Chinese female translators also take interventionist strategies to express their thoughts and positions, manifesting their subjectivity as feminist translators.This thesis will take The Well of Loneliness translated by Zhang Ling, a renowned female translator domestically, as an example to explore which interventionist strategies are employed and how they are applied to manifest the subjectivity of female translators.The author will select some interventionist feminist translation strategies applied by female translator Zhang Ling, exemplifying her representative translation The Well of Loneliness written by Radclyffee Hall, to testify Zhang Ling’s highlighting of the role of the translator and her intention to draw readers’ focus on the benefits of women. In the first part, the study background, study purpose and study significance will be introduced. Feminist translation theories and representitives with their respective points of view will be reviewed in the second chapter. Chapter Three then will give an analysis of interventionist strategies in feminist translation. The next chapter will explore the interventionist feminist translation strategies taken in the translated version of this novel. The last chapter will give a conclusion of the whole thesis, the limitation of it and the problems for further researches.