A Study Of Lin Yutang's Lady Wu From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

This thesis analyzes Lin Yutang's Lady Wu with André Lefevere's rewriting theory as the theoretical framework.It aims to study the impact of rewriting theory on the depiction of Wu Zetian and the selection of translation strategies,so as to testify the applicability of the theory in the biographical literary translations.Profound changes have taken place within translation studies in Western countries since the 1970s.This phenomenon is named as cultural turn of translation study.As an eminent representative of the cultural school of translation studies,André Lefevere put forward rewriting theory and explicitly held that translation is a form of rewriting.He pointed out the three major factors that constrain or influence the rewriting process:ideology,poetics and patronage.Based on two official Tang histories,i.e.the Old Tangshu and the New Tangshu,Lin Yutang elaborately picked those historical facts that he wanted to include in Lady Wu and compiled them.In this way,the image of Wu Zetian was vividly depicted.Therefore,Lady Wu is a biography with abundant translation,integrating translation and rewriting.It can be seen from the previous studies on Lady Wu that hardly any is from the translation perspective.Accordingly,the study on such a unique translation phenomenon deserves great attention.Then there may be some questions.What kind of factors may have an influence on Lin Yutang's selection of historical facts,thus affecting the image-building of Wu Zetian?How did he deal with those facts?What is his consideration in the selection of translation strategies?Therefore,the thesis will adopt rewriting theory in analyzing Lady Wu.Qualitative approach and basic statistics will be applied in this thesis in order to ensure the objectivity of the study.At the very beginning of the thesis,a brief introduction to the research background,significance,hypothesis and structure of the thesis will be provided.Based on a general overview of the previous studies on Lefevere's rewriting theory,Lin Yutang and his Lady Wu,the thesis conducts a tentative research on Lady Wu.The study of this thesis has reached some valuable findings:(1)André Lefevere's rewriting theory is applicable to the analysis of the biographical literary translations.(2)Due to the biographical style of Lady Wu,the individual ideology of the biographer Lin Yutang seems more important than the social ideology.(3)This thesis also pushes forward the study of Lin Yutang and provides a brand new perspective for the study of Lady Wu.Due to the limited length and time,the thesis mainly focuses on the ideological and poetical aspects.It is suggested that the further studies be conducted on the role that the patronage has played in the rewriting process.In addition,more translation studies are hoped to be carried out on biographical literary translations in order to explore the applicability of André Lefevere's rewriting theory.