A Comparative Study On Two Chinese Versions Of Sister Carrie From The Perspective Of Translation As Adaptation And Selection

This thesis is a comparative study of two Chinese versions of Sister Carrie from the perspective of Translation as adaptation and selection aiming to analyse translator's dimensional transformations(linguistic dimension,cultural dimension and communicative dimension)in certain translational eco-environment with Corpus tools,which combine quantitative and qualitative studies.Throughout the history of translation studies,it is inevitable that great attention has always been paid to either the source text or the target text.Meanwhile,translators always remain “invisible”.It is not until the emergence of “cultural return” of translation studies at the second half of the 20 th century that more scholars have conducted researches from the perspective of translator-centeredness and paid more attention to the role and function of translator in translation process.Against this backdrop,Professor Hu Gengshen proposed the theory of Eco-translatology and systematically discussed the theory in his book An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection(ATAS for abbreviation)in 2004.Based on “natural selection,survival of the fittest” of Darwinism,ATAS hold the view that translation is “a translator's adaptation and selection activities in a translational eco-environment”,which highlights the role of translators in translation activities as subject,doer and executor.Moreover,ATAS broadens the horizons of translation studies by the analysis of a triangle relationship of “source text-translator-target text.”Chinese translations of English classical literature work consist of an indispensable part of English-Chinese translations studies.Theodore Dreiser's masterpiece Sister Carrie,which is a milestone of American realistic literature,contains abundant cultural connotations and artistic values.Therefore,the study of its two Chinese versions,translated separately by Qiu & Shi(Qiu & Shi for abbreviation)in 1962 and Wang Kefei & Zhang Shaoning(Wang & Zhang for abbreviation)in 1999,is of great significance in deepening our knowledge of language,culture and translation.In addition,the two selected versions were produced and published during two different periods with special time features,therefore,both were popular with the public and both had large circulation,revisions,thus gaining better reader's feedback than other Chinese versions.This thesis will make a comparative analysis of a lot examples using corpus from the perspective of three-dimensional transformations and explain the reasons behind translator's selection from their “needs”,“competence” and “translational eco-environment”.Overall,researches on Sister Carrie mainly focus on its literature value whereas few lay emphases on its Chinese translations.Employing Translation as Adaptation and Selection as theoretical basis and combining qualitative and quantitative analysis is a new perspective,which could undoubtedly give some light to comparative researches on literature translations afterwards.