A Study On Evan King's English Translation Of Luotuo Xiangzi Based On The Variation Theory Of Comparative Literature

Making Beijing in the 1920 s as the background,Luotuo Xiangzi describes the tragic fate of the rickshaw boys during the warlords' melee in that period.It is a novel written by “people's artist”-Lao She and still occupies an important place in the history of Chinese literature.In 1945,the American translator Evan King translated the novel and named it Rickshaw Boy.At that time,the translated work was partially deleted and changed without the author's consent;therefore,it has aroused the dissatisfaction of the author himself and many critics.However,once published,this translation won a lot of praise and became a best-seller for a time,the phenomenon of which has aroused the interest of many scholars.Although a large number of Chinese scholars have studied this translated work from the background,the significance of the times and multiple theoretical perspectives,there is little analysis from the perspective of the variation theory of comparative literature.This thesis takes the original work of Lao She and the English version by Evan King as the research objects,and describes and explains the creative treason in Evan King's Rickshaw Boy.The thesis firstly gives a detailed overview of studies on English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi,then the related research on variation theory in comparative literature is reviewed,and the analysis framework of this thesis is drawn up on the basis of cross-language variation in the variation theory.The study finds that in the cross-linguistic context,there are a great deal of creative treason in Evan King's Rickshaw Boy,embodied mainly in free translation,intentional mistranslation,intentional leaking translation and compilation.And translator's creative treason is mainly influenced by three factors: language and culture mechanism,translator's subjectivity and reader's acceptance.The author hopes that the study of the English translation of Luotuo Xiangzi from the perspective of variation theory can enhance our understanding of literary translation and further enrich approaches to literary translation study.