Translation Of Half Of Man Is Woman From The Perspective Of Travelling Theory

The proposal of “traveling theory” by Edward Said in 1983 has provided translation studies a brand-new view,which in the meantime opens a window for scholars who devote heart and soul to translation studies.Similarly,travel is an significant way for cultural translation.It refers to the boundary-crossing experience of human beings from one place to another.Translation is similar to travel in many ways,for it does not only involve the time and space displacement,but itself is also a cross-cultural communication.In this sense,translation can be regarded as a textual travel from one cultural circumstance to another.Said holds that travel of texts corresponds to the travel of theories.Travel of texts also follows three steps: departure,passage and arrival.To start with,translators’ selection of texts with a purpose signifies the departure of textual travel.In the passage of travel,under the manipulation of translators,the text will experience some linguistic and cultural transformations in order to be accepted in the receiving culture.When the text finally reaches a new place,it may be resisted or accepted by the new circumstance.This thesis manifests how traveling manipulates in the translation activities by taking Zhang Xianliang’s novel Half of Man Is Woman as a case study and Said’s “traveling” theory as the framework.By making comparisons and analysis of the English and Chinese versions of this novel,this thesis illustrates how the translation of Half of Man Is Woman is affected by the constraints and priorities of different cultural background and how transformations and misunderstandings of the text are formed.It is argued that,during the travelling process,the original text will inevitably experience a series of transformations and misunderstandings.There are two major reasons that contribute to the transformational and misunderstanding result.The first one is to cater to the dominant individualism,anti-Chinese and anti-Communism ideology prevailing in American society.The second one is to cater to the main poetics which reflect the personal growth and struggle at that time.These transformations and misunderstanding are mainly evinced in the rendering of political terms,idioms,northwest dialect and some sex and vulgar words.