On Introduction And Translation Of Foreign Literature: A Case Study On The Journal Of The Young China Association

The Young China Association(hereinafter referred to as the Association)is one of the representative associations during the May Fourth Movement period,whose members gather together in pursuit of building a “Young China” and publish The Journal of the Young China Association(hereinafter referred to as the Journal).However,there exists a gap between their members' political appeals and the “stay-away-from-politics” attitude of the Journal.Meanwhile,its proportion and practice of the introduction and translation of foreign literature appear special and editors' emphasis in contrast to other contemporary journals within and without the Association.Therefore,in the theoretical framework of the politics-literature relations,the translation studies,and translation norms,this thesis analyzes the characteristics of literary introduction and translation in the Journal and reasons behind them in terms of the Association's political appeal changes,and makes reasonable assumptions of editors' contributions to improve the Journal considering target readers' needs.It is found that the literary introduction and translation in the Journal reply to the Association's political appeals accordingly.In the first period,its selection of foreign literature is diversified,but themes like national and individual freedom are stressed.Translators in fact do not follow the literal translation strategy as is claimed by editors and translators,and they make large or small rewritings in order to better attract readers.In the second period,editors and translators avoid sensitive political issues of their own accord in order to maintain the unity of the Association.They focus more on literariness when selecting themes of love and humanity,and they make literal translation and sometimes word-for-word translation and add explanations in order to render the full source text to the readers.This thesis also reasonably assumes editors' contributions to expand the readership according to the characteristics of literary introduction and translation,including capturing heated social issues,spreading new thinking and culture,alternating literary genres and catering to the popular literary translation strategy at that time.