On Translators' Habitus From Perspective Of Bourdieu's Sociology

Ah Q Zheng Zhuan written by Lu Xun is generally held to be a masterpiece of modern Chinese literature. Until now, studies on translations of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan were generally conducted from the perspectives of linguistics, skopos theory, reception aesthetics and so on, and seldom from the sociology. This paper is intended to employ three key notions of Bourdieu's sociology, namely field, capital and habitus, to combine the external and internal factors behind the production of translation, further highlighting the social nature of translation activity. The thesis chooses the three English versions of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan translated respectively by the Yangs, William Lyell and Julia Lovell as the research subjects and makes a contrastive study of the three versions from macro and micro level. On the macro level, the paper examines the constructive role of fields and capitals and other social variables on the translators' habitus. On the micro-level, this paper investigates the habitus's influence in the translation process.The research finds that the translation fields in which translators situate and the capitals possessed by them, coupled with the habitus formed in the process of socialization construct translators' habitus, which has an influence on translation purpose, translation thought and translation strategy. To be specific, the foreignziation strategy adopted to spread Chinese culture became the mainstream rule in the translation field in which the Yangs situated due to the intervention of the political field. The Yangs had to obey the rules in the fields in order to get approval and capital. In Lyell's time, the American literary field was more tolerant to Chinese Americans and foreign literature. Readers in the west hoped to taste the flavor of foreign literature, and the dominant "fluency" in the translation field was weakened to an extent. The translation field in which Lovell situated was influenced by the publication field, much attention was paid to readers' expectation and the domestication was the dominant rule in the translation field. Besides, the various capitals possessed by translators have close relationship with their identity in the field. The Yangs' weak symbolic capital in the west promoted them form the attitude of staunch cultural esteem and fidelity to the original. Lyell, with rich cultural capital and symbolic capital, tended to fully convey the original content and style. Lovell, with prominent economic capital and social capital, was concerned about the common readership and the acceptability. In addition, in the socialization process of such as education, life and work, translators also develop their thinking habit and behavior tendency. The Yangs' intercultural habitus, Lyell's professional habitus and Lovell's reader-oriented habitus all bear the brand of the early social experience.As agents with their specific habitus and capitals struggle in the power field, so translators'habitus has an influence on transition purpose, translation thought and translation strategy. The Yangs, under the influence of their intercultural habitus, were committed to spreading Chinese culture and remolding China's image, being faithful to the original. They adopted foreignization strategy on the cultural level and used literal translation on linguistic level. Lyell, under the influence of his professional habitus, translated for the purpose that English readers could taste and appreciate Lu Xun's works the way Chinese readers do, striving to re-appear the original style. He used thick translation on cultural level, but domestication on linguistic level. Lovell, under the influence of her reader-oriented habitus, aimed to tell good Chinese stories under Lu Xun's pen for those English readers who are unfamiliar with Chinese culture. She followed the translation belief of faithful creation and had preference for domestication, rendering a version that reads like written by the target language instead of a translated work.To sum up, translators' habitus is formed in specific historical period and the socialization process, different habitus of translators result in different versions of the same original. On the whole, the Yangs'version is faithful to the original, and close to the syntactic structure and concise style of the original. It enjoys more popularity at home for English learners. Lyell's version is typically a scholar one, which is quite suitable for scholars, or teaching and research use. Lovell's version, the most fluent and readable, is more popular among common English readers. As we know, the translation of Chinese literature classics is of much significance to enhance the international influence of Chinese culture. However, the translations of Chinese literature works sponsored by Chinese government are not well accepted in the west. This paper is intended to explore the internal and external reasons behind the different production of the three versions of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan, with a hope to offer revelation for Chinese literature going out.