A Research On Rewriting On English Version Of The Three-Body Problem From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Science fiction translation is in the marginal status of translation studies in China.There are a few studies focusing on translation of foreign science fiction.And the science fiction The Three-Body Problem,created by the famous science fiction writer Liu Cixin,gains the best long-length novel of the Hugo Award on August 23,2015,which means that The Three-Body Problem makes Chinese science fiction have a certain status all over the world.The success of The Three-Body Problem makes it possible to translate Chinese science fiction into English.However,the field of translation study does not pay more attention to Ken Liu’s English version of The Three-Body Problem,let alone the systematic descriptive study.Manipulation Theory is claimed by André Lefevere,a representative personage in Manipulation School.André Lefevere introduces the concept “rewriting” into his article Translation,Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame and advocates that translation is rewriting.He claims that on the one hand,translation is a kind of transformation in linguistic structure;on the other hand,translation is more a kind of rewriting that the translator conducts in terms of culture aspect of the original.Generally speaking,translating refers to those adjustment actions that the translator conducts,such as deleting,adding,rewriting,compiling,criticizing and editing the contents of the original,in order to serve for a certain society.And he especially emphasizes the three elements: ideology,poetics and patronage.Rewriting Theory is not limited to the text,which produces a kind of new perspective for translation study.This thesis tries to use the new perspective of translation study,Manipulation Theory,put forward by André Lefevere,to study Ken Liu’s English version of The Three-BodyProblem.And the research method of the thesis is to find the rewritten examples existed in Ken Liu’s English version of The Three-Body Problem by the author’s parallel contrast between the original and the translated text and try to classify them by the following seven aspects: individual ideology and social ideology,literary devices,symbols and prototypical characters and situations,the selection of the source text and the addition of footnotes.That is,the thesis intends to generalize and analyze those rewritten examples in accordance with the three elements Manipulation Theory especially emphasizes: ideology,poetics and patronage and tries to explain the reasons why the translator chooses to rewrite the source text and what translation strategies the translator adopts in the process of rewriting.Through the research,the thesis finds that in the process of translation,the translator,Ken Liu,does be manipulated by ideology,poetics and patronage and rewrites the original.And the translator adopts corresponding translation strategies,such as transliteration,amplification,omitting,literal and free translation to rewrite the source text.The thesis needs to notice that although rewriting is the main translation strategy the translator adopts,the reasons of rewriting cannot be absolutely regarded as the manipulation of ideology,poetics and patronage.It is a pity that the thesis does not conduct comprehensive and exhaustive quantitative analyses on rewriting parts of Ken Liu’s English version of The Three-Body Problem,which are limitations of the thesis,expecting further studies to improve.