A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Translations Of Manifesto Of The Communist Party From The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

Manifesto of the Communist Party is a classic Marxism work which is coauthored by Marx and Engels.The scientific truth that it reveals has had a profound impact on the history of the world.Since it was published,The Manifesto has been translated into more than 120 languages and at least 1000 translations all over the world.In China,it has more than 20 Chinese translations.Its thought has brought the profound influence on the revolution and the construction of China.Many Chinese scholars studies The Manifesto from the aspects that are its dissemination and significance,the process of its translation,the early translations,its complete Chinese translation and the translation of the words and the sentences.But few people go on a comparative study of its Chinese translations.Polysystem Theory refers to a multi-level aggregation which is combined by the interrelated factors.It argues that semiotic phenomena,or sign-governed human patterns of communication(such as language,literature,culture,society),should be regarded as heterogeneous,dynamic and open systems rather than conglomerates of disparate elements,and that the behavior patterns of a particular system sometimes is related to its position within a superior polysystem.Ideology,power,economy and other social and cultural factors of target system will also influence the result of the translation.The theory sets translation against a broader cultural context and provides a descriptive perspective to examine the macro-factors in translation studies,hence exerting a far-reaching impact on translation studies.This thesis is based on Polysytem Theory,and adopts the qualitative research to comparatively study the two Chinese translations of The Manifesto(Chen‘s translation and Central Compilation and Translation Bureau‘s translation)from the framework,the lexical level and the syntactical level.The author tries to find the reasons that lead to different translations and the different translation methods and strategies used by the translators to broaden the width of the research.The results show that society,culture,ideology,patron and so on,influence its typesetting,typeface,notes and the translation of its words and sentences in the different periods.Chen‘s translation mainly adopts the strategy of domestication and CCTB‘s translation largely uses the strategy of foreignization.It hopes that this thesis can promote the translation study of The Manifesto and the political texts.