A Study On The Self-translation Of The Bridge Of Heaven From The Perspective Of Eco-Transiatology

S. I. Hsiung is a talented writer, (self-) translator and playwright, who however doesn’t receive his due recognition from the public at home. During his life, Hsiung has created and translated many novels and dramas, attracting widespread concern abroad. His reception at home and abroad forms a sharp contrast, which should attract academic attention.After writing and publishing his masterpiece The Bridge of Heaven abroad, Hsiung translated it into Chinese. The differences between the English version and the Chinese version attract this thesis to make a comparative analysis. S.I. Hsiung has self-translated more than one work, including The Bridge of Heaven, Lady Precious Stream and The Professor form Peking. Since former researches on self-translation both at home and abroad mainly focus on a few self-translators and a few self-translated works, the study on S. I. Hsiung’s self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven can help expand the research scope in the field of self-translation.This thesis aims to find out the differences between the original work and the self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven through textual analysis and analyze Hsiung’s self-translated The Bridge of Heaven according to the degree of holistic adaptation and selection proposed by Eco-Translatology. Eco-translatology serves as the theoretical framework, which proposes that multi-dimensional transformations, reader’s feedback and translator’s qualification can be used to evaluate the degree of holistic adaptation and selection, which can then be employed to analyze and asses translated works.A close comparison between the original work and the self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven finds that there exist numerous differences between the original work and the self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven, mainly in the form of the addition of information, the deletion of information and the transformation of information. These differences can be explained both through Hsiung’s attitude towards translation and transformations in linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions. This thesis concludes that despite the differences between the original work and the self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven, they can be accounted for from the perspective of multi-dimensional transformations. According to the evaluation criteria of the degree of holistic adaptation and selection, readers give positive feedback to the Chinese self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven and S. I. Hsiung is a qualified translator with several qualifications; therefore, the original work is rendered with a high degree of holistic adaptation and selection. Besides, this thesis proposes that it can lead to a more comprehensive evaluation of one translation by assessing it in light of the text, reader and translator. The evaluation method proposed by Eco-Translatology has certain realistic significance in evaluating translation and providing guidance for translation practices. Through the study on Hsiung’s self-translated The Bridge of Heaven, this thesis further points out that it may lead to a more objective evaluation by adopting different evaluation criteria for works written in a foreign language and self-translated into one’s mother tongue or first language and works written in one’s mother tongue or first language and self-translated into a foreign language.This thesis has certain research significance in that it enriches studies on the phenomenon of self-translation, S. I. Hsiung and his works. Moreover, it also sheds light on reader’s feedback to the self-translation of The Bridge of Heaven and the qualifications of Hsiung as a translator, which is conducive to the training and selection of qualified translators for future translation practices.