A Study On The English Translation Of The Three-body Trilogy From The View Of Feminist Translation Theory

As an important branch of literary genre,science fiction novels had received little attention among Chinese academic circles with a narrow readership until the publication of The Three-Body trilogy(hereinafter referred to as The Three-Body).As the most representative work of Liu Cixin,the English translation of The Three-Body was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2014 and won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015,gaining widespread popularity among Anglophone readers,which directly elevated the position of Chinese science fiction from the edge to the mainstream of world literature.The previous studies on The Three-Body mainly emphasized how the literary value and practical significance reflected in this trilogy have promoted the development of Chinese science fiction,but relevant researches into the English translation of The Three-Body are scarce and only focused on one of the novel series.This research not only discusses the translation strategies used in the English version of all volumes of The Three-Body,but also probes into the gender awareness and translator’s subjectivity demonstrated in translated texts of the trilogy,thereby revealing the influence of feminist translation theory on the translation event.This study is carried out under the guidance of feminist translation theory that emerged in the 1990s.It has opened up a new perspective of gender consciousness,social ideology,patronage and translator’s subjectivity reflected in translation events,hence to promote the "cultural turn" in translation studies.A number of representatives of feminist translation such as Simon(1996),Flotow(1997),and Chamberlain(1988)devoted themselves to eliminating the gender discrimination in translation activities,redefining the relationship between translated texts and original works.Feminist translators have proposed that the translation process is not simply a linguistic transformation between two texts,but rather a supplement and extension to original meaning.And translators are expected to interpret and even rewrite the original work creatively by virtue of numerous strategies instead of being limited in the faithfulness toward the source text.As Simon pointed out,the strategies of feminist translation can be referred to as a cultural intervention and a challenge to the authority of traditional patriarchy society,allowing the voices of translators and female to be heard(1996).Since the key element of feminist translation theory includes eliminating the gender discrimination against women in translation studies or practice and enhancing the status of both female and translators,this study contextualizes the gender awareness,translator’s subjectivity and English translation of The Three-Body trilogy,thereby analyzing how the English translation reveals the conceptions of feminist translation theory.Methodologically this study adopts approaches of Toury’ descriptive translation studies.First it situates the English translation of The Three-Body within the target system to discuss the acceptability or significance of the translation activity(Toury,2012:102),which is followed by a textual description of the English version of this trilogy including language style,patronage and use of paratext with specific examples.Next comes a case study on the translation of The Three-Body to figure out the shifts in translation process and the coupled pairs between source texts and translated versions(2012:102),hence to disclose how the gender awareness and translator’s subjectivity were reflected into target texts from the view of feminist translation theory.Drawing upon the translation methods of feminist translation theory,the main body of this research demonstrates how the gender awareness and translator’s subjectivity have been mapped into the English translation of The Three-Body based on a detailed case analysis,thereby disclosing the contributor of feminist translation strategies to the success achieved by this trilogy’s translation work.It is concluded with the implications of this study and suggestions for the further research.