A Comparative Study On The English Versions Of Chang Sheng Dian From The Perspective Of Toury’s Theory On Translational Norms

Chang Sheng Dian, written by Hong Sheng in Qing Dynasty, is a masterpiece of Chuanqi drama. And the Chinese government considers its translation as a significant approach to promote cultural communication. Among all the English versions of Chang Sheng Dian, Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s translation(hereafter, Yang’s) in 1955 and Xu Yuanchong and Frank M. Xu’s translation(hereafter, Xu’s) in 2012 are widely accepted and both of their publications are funded by the Chinese government. In reading the two versions, the author of this thesis finds out that their different translation performances are closely related to the different social and cultural background of the two historical periods, which conforms to Gideon Toury’s theory on translational norms. Toury holds the opinion that translation is regulated by norms and he focuses on the sociocultural conditions that affect translation behaviors. He points out that through comparative descriptions, the translational norms and furthermore, a universal hypothesis of translation theory can be constructed.Based on the theoretical framework of Toury’s theory on translational norms, the author of this thesis conducts a comparative study of Chang Sheng Dian’s English translation. By comparing the two translators’ different translation methods and strategies at the lexical, linguistic and stylistic level, this thesis intends to analyze what are the two versions’ features and what socio-cultural factors cause the differences. The author has the following major findings:Influenced by the cultural norms in different historical periods, Yang’s and Xu’s English versions present different features. Comparing with the 1950 s, the international status of Chinese culture and Chinese traditional drama’s position in the western literary system are both raised in the 21 st century. Under this circumstance, Xu’s translation is fuller in form because of his translation of the jointed structure of Qu and Pai in Chang Sheng Dian; also, in view of the translation of gags as a key component of Chuanqi drama, Xu’s translation is fuller in content because of his break away of the simple elegant-or-not criticism standard; furthermore, in view of the leading translation strategy, Yang apply domestication and Xu applies foreignization. And influenced by the translators’ individual translation principles, Yang’s version is prosaic and Xu’s version is poetic.Through the analysis of the two English versions from the perspective of translational norms, this study provides reference for the future translation practice and a case study for constructing translational norms of Chang Sheng Dian. This study applies descriptive method in the study of the translation of Chang Sheng Dian for the first time, therefore, it has creativity to some degree. In addition, because the research objects are translated by scholars from the source language, this study expands the application scope of Toury’s norms theory. And through this study, the author is in hope of inspiring a little to the translation practice and studies of Chinese traditional drama in the future.