A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of The Wind In The Willows From The Perspective Of Translation As Adaptation And Selection

The Wind in the Willows is a work of children's literature with high art attainments in the history of England.It deserves further research because of its vivid plots,graceful language and changeful words.However,the author finds that researches on translation of children's literature(TCL)from the perspective of approach to translation as adaptation and selection(ATAS)are still insufficient,and therefore the author chooses the classic work The Wind in the Willows and Yang Jingyuan's and Wang Lin's Chinese versions as the research objects.This thesis mainly studies the differences of the two translators' adaptive selections in different translational eco-environments from the perspective of ATAS and what translation strategies or methods are applied,which will give some inspirations to translators in TCL in future.This thesis includes six chapters.The first chapter introduces research background,aims and significance of the present study.Chapter two is the literature review,which elaborates the former studies on the source text,two Chinese versions and ATAS.The third chapter is centered on the theoretical framework.It introduces the origin and the development of ATAS which is proposed by Professor Hu Gengshen,the concepts of “adaptation” and “selection”,translator-centeredness,as well as the translation principle and methods.Chapter four presents the research design,involving the research questions,research methodology,data collection and research procedure.The fifth chapter is the body of this thesis.The author makes a comparison between Yang's and Wang's versions based on their own translational ecoenvironments.The author chooses lots of typical examples from linguistic,communicative and cultural dimensions,and makes detailed contrastive analysis to study the differences of the translators' adaptations and selections and to learn their choices of translation strategies and methods,which could provide theoretical and practical basis for researches on TCL in future.The last chapter comes to the conclusion of this thesis—ATAS has theoretical and practical value for TCL.It is translational eco-environment that affects translator's adaptation and selection.In TCL,translators should take full consideration of children readers and find the appropriate strategies in order to create better versions for children.Meanwhile,implications and limitations of the present thesis are also pointed out.