A Study On The Self-translation Of The Bridge Of Heaven From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

S.I.Hsiung,also known as Xiong Shiyi,along with Lin Yutang is bilingual writer in the 20 th century.He has many representative works,among which The Bridge of Heaven is very popular among western readers.When it firstly came out in Britain in 1943,it was reprinted four times.In 1944,it was reprinted four times again.In 1945,it was reprinted twice.The laureate Masefield and the master of Chinese culture Tschen Yin Koh both think highly of this book.The simplified Chinese version of this book was firstly published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in 2012.The distinctive self-translation,together with this novel has drawn the attention of Chinese scholars.This thesis employs the English novel The Bridge of Heaven and its simplified Chinese version as the research objects.Based on Lefevere's Rewriting Theory,the author finds that there are many rewritings and analyzes the reason why S.I.Hsiung rewrites through the analysis of the cases in the two versions.Meanwhile,it proves feasible to apply Rewriting Theory to the guidance of literary translation through the analysis of this thesis.The research shows that S.I.Hsiung is not totally loyal to the source text.There are many rewritings.Since the translator should conform to dominant ideology and poetics in the target culture,rewritings appear.At the same time,rewritings do well to the readability and acceptability of this book.This thesis explores the ideology manipulating the rewritings from the perspective of values,religions and culture-specific expressions.This thesis also explores the poetics manipulating the rewritings from the perspective of four-character phrases,honorifics and self-depreciatory expressions,rhetorical devices and syntactic structure.Thus S.I.Hsiung is affected by the dominant ideology and poetics while translating.Through the comparative study of these two versions,the author hopes that the thesis will give some implications to the study of S.I.Hsiung,the self-translation and even translation of literary works.