Evolution And Reconstruction

Journey to the center of the earth is one of Jules Verne's scientific masterpieces,published in 1864.Once published,this work has enjoyed worldwide popularity with its precise scientific foresight and extraordinary imagination.In addition,this novel is also a matter of adaptations preferable for the film directors.It has been adapted three times by different film directors,on the one hand,the three-time trips on the big screen have confirmed the success of this work,on the other hand,the adapted films have attracted the attention of the public,helping to expand the diffusion of the novel.As a classic science fiction,Journey to the center of the earth has been translated into Chinese for more than a hundred years.The year 1903 is marked by the release of the first translation of this novel,under the Chinese title of Di di lu xing.Lu Xun has completed the translation by consulting the Japanese translated version.The translation of science fiction at that time introduce a new literary genre in China.With the help of translation,original Chinese science fiction was born.After Lu Xun's first translation,different translations of this novel have emerged.Since the reform and opening up,there are more than 80 translations of the Journey to the center of the arth,involving more than 60 publishing houses.With a long history and a large number of translated versions,the translation of the Journey to the center of the earth is particularly important among the Chinese translations of Jules Verne's scientific works.As the creator of the new life of the original,the translation activity is in constantly evolution,and the understanding of text can not be done in one go.Different translations of the Journey to the center of the earth emerge in different historical periods,bearing great importance for the heritage of the life of the original.By selecting the different versions translated for over a hundred years,through a textual analysis aiming to clarify their specific aspects,the present work intends to draw a trajectory of evolution and reconstruction of the Chinese translation of the Journey to the center of the earth.Thus,there is an attempt to reflect on the socio-cultural factors affecting the translation,particularly with regard to the target reader and the motivation of the translation.In addition to all this,we seek to reveal the historical and constructive characteristics of the translation.By taking the three phases of the novel's translation as the axis of reflection,the present study is divided into three chapters.The first chapter aims to explore the first translation of the Journey to the center of the earth at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republican era,whose translator is Lu Xun.At the microscopic level,a critique of the translation will be made by taking the narration mode as a starting point.This translated version mechanically used a traditional Chinese narrative mode,the Zhang hui ti,in the form of transforming the story told in the first person into story told in the third person,suppressing intrigue and erasing the character of the personage.The operation of the novel in the process of translation can be explained by the particular socio-cultural context.At that time,since that native science fiction has not yet emerged,that the translation has appeared as serial novels in newspapers,that science fiction has been considered as a didactic tool to educate the great mass and that the general public has become the target reader of translation,in order to serve the target reader and to achieve the definite goal of the translation,an adapted strategy has been applied to translation.The second chapter is to reflect on the retranslated version of the Journey to the center of the earth shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China,whose translator is Yang Xianyi and Wen Shiqing.The idea is to highlight his great attempt to construct the space of interpretation of the text and its reproduction of the original form and content.Under the social context of"Walk to Science",thanks to the efforts of China Youth Press and Chinese intellectuals,Jules Verne had his second vogue of translation in China.At this time,the Journey to the center of the earth is considered as a scientific enlightenment book for teenagers and the motive for translation is to encourage youth to explore science and the unknown.Then,the translator of that time has shown his subjectivity to recreate a science fiction classic whose literary and scientific characteristics are well presented.The third chapter attempts to analyze the two translated versions of the Journey to the center of the earth in the 21st century,one of which is made by Chen Xiaoping,the other is from the hand of Wen Zhong.The version retranslated by Chen did a good job in expanding text interpretation space,in the precision of scientific terms and in the transformation of writing style.Wen's translation played an educational role for the child in support of illustrations and notes inserted in the translated text.In 2011,the Ministry of Education has included Jules Verne in the recommended list of scientific reading for primary school children,in which case the child becomes a new target reader of the translation.The change of target reader drives to the change of translational method.Due to the existence of young readers in the 21st century,the goal of translation has diversified,accompanied by multiple translations.In this way,the scope of the novel's diffusion has been broadened.In the conclusion,after reviewing the main features of the different Chinese translations of the Journey to the center of the earth,we can emphasize that translation is always reader-oriented and that the choice of translating strategies and methods is driven by the acceptance of target readers.At the same time,the translation activity always takes place in a certain historical and cultural context,the historical characteristic of the translation can not be ignored.The evolution and reconstruction of the novel during these 100 years can be an explanation of the historicity of the translation.Moreover,the different translations complete the hermeneutical path of the novel.The translation contributes to recreate a new life of the original.