A Study Of English Translation Of Han Shan Poems From Pierre Bourdieu's Sociological Perspective

This thesis targets on the production process of the English versions of Han Shan poems.Han Shan poems have long been in the marginal zone of traditional Chinese poetry and have received little attention since its coming out.The main reason is the language style of Han Shan poems is colloquial and simple,which does not enjoy the delicacy and eloquence of traditional Chinese poetry;Moreover,the author of Han Shan poems,Han Shanzi,is little famous(some studies also point out that Han Shan pomes were written by more than one author).Thus there is no special attention paid to Han Shan poems.In traditional Chinese culture,people prefer prominent poets like Bai Juyi and Du Fu.Such a situation has not changed for almost thousands of years until the year of 1953 when Arthur Waley translated 27 Han Shan poems and introduced Han Shan poems to the west.A Chinese proverb can be used to describe such a phenomenon: “In wall blooms and outside the crenellated wall goes the fragrance.” It has been beyond people's imagination that Han Shan poems have achieved great attention and success in the west,especially in Britain and America.Such a phenomenon itself is worth studying.In terms of the studies of traditional Chinese poetry,most domestic scholars focus on the microscopic level,in other words,the linguistic level,and they care about whether the target text is loyal to the original one or not.However,the study of poetry translation should not be confined to the linguistic level and the attention should also be paid to the sociological level.Through the study of the production process of poetry translation,it can be explained at the macroscopic level whether the translation version would be accepted by target readers.In the year of 1972,James Holmes initiated the “translation sociology” in the Translation Section of the Third International Congress of Applied Linguistic held in Copenhagen.In the following studies,many sociological theories are applied into the translation study field which offer a new perspective to translation study.Pierre Bourdieu's sociology has been applied the most.Its three key concepts field,capital and habitus are most applicable to translation practice.In addition,domestic scholars focus on Gary Snyder's version and less attention is paid to other versions of Han Shan poems.Under the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu's sociology,this thesis applies the method of qualitative analysis which is combined with case studies to elaborate and illustrate the production process of the two versions of Han Shan poems,which covers the literary fields of Britain and America,translators' capital and habitus.Based on the analysis,it elaborates the reasons of the reception conditions of the two English versions in Britain and America.At first,this thesis introduces the research background,research purpose,research significance and the outline of this thesis.In the following part of literature review,it mainly concludes the research achievements and research gaps of previous studies of sociology and Han Shan poems as well as their English versions at home and abroad.And then the theoretical structure mainly introduces Pierre Bourdieu's sociology and illustrates its three key concepts-field,capital,habitus and explains the advantages of their applications in translation study.Combining the key concepts of field,capital and habitus,the thesis analyzes the literary fields of Britain and America;the translators' habitus and capital of Arthur Waley and Burton Watson.Through these analyses,it can be found how these sociological factors influence the reception results of Han Shan poems in Britain and America.The findings are as follows: Since Arthur Waley first brings Han Shan poems into British literary field,Han Shan poems don't arouse much attention in Britain all the long time.However,it has been studied and translated in American literary field all these years.The climax is Gary Synder's version.In the following years,other versions come out in America,such as Burton Watson's version.According to this phenomenon,this thesis finds that although influenced by American literary field,the British literary field is relatively conservative which cannot embrace the colloquial and simple Han Shan poems.Although Waley developes the habitus of translating simple Chinese poetry,and applies colloquial language style as well,he never strays too far from the field of conventional English poetry.Thus based on these reasons,Waley's version of Han Shan poems are not as sparkling as his other translation works.Burton Watson's version came out in 1960 s in American literary field which is influenced by “Beat Generation,” “New Poetry Movement” and some other cultural movements.American power field also encourages American youth to embrace new things and challenges.In addition,the success of Snyder's version endows Han Shan poems a great deal of symbolic capital.Besides,Watson's habitus of pursuing simple translation and various kinds of capital help him become a more acceptable translator.All these elements have provided the solid foundation for the continuous popularity of Han Shan poems in American literary field.The significance of this study has at least two main points.Firstly,it provides a new perspective for the study of English versions of Han Shan poems.Secondly,it sheds a little bit light on the path of Chinese literature going out.In order to make translation versions accepted by target readers,original texts should fit with target literary fields;translators should acquire enough capital to get in touch with original texts when conducting translation activities;translators' habitus should appeal to general styles of original texts.