A Study On Pan Qingling’s Chinese Version Of Main Street From The Perspective Of Social Dominant Ideology

It is well-known to us that traditional translation studies focus on source texts,pay much attention to comparison between source texts and target texts and regard faithfulness or not as the translation standards.However,since 1970 s,a significant event appeared in translation studies which is called “cultural turn”.Translation researchers break the limitations of linguistic studies and turn to the cultural studies,trying to explore and reveal the potential social and cultural elements which may influence translation.One of the most influential researchers is Andre Lefevere who introduces the important concept of “rewriting” into the translation theories and studies systematically the relationship among ideology,patronage,poetics and translation.Andre Lefevere suggests that translations are inevitably manipulated by translators,and translators are definitely manipulated by dominant ideologies,poetics and patronage in different periods and situations.No matter the selection of translated works before translating or the preference of translation strategies,style and so forth,they are all affected by dominant ideologies of certain periods translators being in,aiming to make translations to be accepted by more and more target-language readers.Therefore,rewriting works cannot always reflect the originals truthfully.Lefevere points out that “Translation is,of course,a rewriting of an original text.All rewritings,whatever their intention,reflect a certain ideology and a poetics and as such manipulate literature to function in a given society in a given way.”(Lefevere 1992: vii)Sinclair Lewis is an American realistic novelist,who is the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.Main Street is the beginning of his fameand one of his representative works,in which Sinclair Lewis satirizes the lifestyle of American society in 1920 s,criticizes the conservative,superficial and hypercritical people of upper and middle classes in capitalist countries.Meanwhile,he enthusiastically expresses sympathy,praise and respect to working people of proletariat and independent and liberated women.Once published,Main Street received extensive affirmation and praises and made a profound influence on American society.This thesis chooses Pan Qingling’s translation version of Main Street in 1970 s as object which is one of the masterpieces of him.Pan Qingling is a serious,rigorous and self-critical translator,who deliberates,chooses and refines each word,phrases and sentences carefully,trying his best to show the works to readers completely and perfectly.Main Street is the first American literature Pan Qingling translates;thus,he has been very strict and serious during translating and put so much energies and times into this translation.Once published,this translation,with good quality,has been acclaimed and has been reprinted seven times so far.This thesis is based on the framework of Lefevere’s rewriting theory and compares Pan Qingling’s Chinese version of Main Street with its original version,which is aimed to reveal that how these “invisible hands” —ideology,patronage and poetics—play essential parts in Pan Qingling’s Chinese version of Main Street,which also acts as a basis for explanation on the following research questions: Why could Main Street be translated into Chinese? Whether the translator’s choice was influenced by the patronage at that time or at his own will? What translation strategies did the translator adopt in the process of translation,and how did he use these translation strategies? The ultimate goal of this thesis is to testify the validity and applicability of Andre Lefevere’s “rewriting theory” as well as his triad theory of ideology,poetics and patronage in Chinese translation activities.