A Contrastive Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Peter Pan From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Based on the Cultural Turn in translation study and the Polysystem Theory, André Lefevere puts forward the rewriting theory. He points out that translation is a rewriting of the original text by the translator under the manipulation of the dominant ideology, poetics and patronage in a particular time. Children’s literature, as a subsystem of the literary system has been in the peripheral position for a long time, so it is more susceptible to the manipulation of the ideology and poetics of a specific historical cultural environment. At present, Chinese children are exposed to a great part of children’s literature abroad, so the translation of foreign children’s literature in China plays a significant role, for its translation is closely related to the books provided for children in China.This thesis has selected two Chinese versions of Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie as the research object. Since the two Chinese versions were translated in different periods of time, social dominant ideology and poetics were quite different, so the two versions bear their unique characteristics. Cases of different translation strategies and examples in terms of phonology, lexis, syntax are selected. It aims to make a comparison of the two Chinese versions of Peter Pan on basis of different ideological and poetical backgrounds under the guidance of rewriting theory, thus it reaches the conclusion that translators in different periods will be influenced by unique ideology and poetics, and their translations tend to be manipulated by the ideology and poetics. Since ideology and poetics change with time, translators will rewrite to meet the taste of readers in the new era so as to ensure their versions are accepted by readers to the greatest extent.