The Translation And Reception Of Bob Dylan In China

The research on Bob Dylan and his works has witnessed an increase in China since he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.Despite the fact that Bob Dylan became a household name in the West in the 1960 s,few translations and introductions of Bob Dylan and his works appeared in the mainstream media till 1980 s in the then China.The reason lies mainly in that art as well as music has always been regarded as the tool of political ideology for prevailing class struggle at that time,which left less room for the lyrical tradition to last.In the late 1980 s,however,the translation and introduction of Bob Dylan in China tended to flourish diversely,which is inseparably interconnected with the relatively tolerant ideology and lyrical tradition.In view of this,this thesis aims to make a genealogical survey and theoretical elaboration on the mutual relationship between politics and history upon the basis of Bob Dylan's Chinesization in terms of the theory of manipulation,mediotranslatology and traveling theory.The history of Bob Dylan's traveling in China can be roughly divided into three phases: 1960 to 1977,1978 to 2015,and since 2016.In the middle and late 1960 s,a large number of cultural products both from the East and West were rejected in the name of feudalism,capitalism and revisionism,showing the powerful manipulation of ideology,which caused great poverty in translation and reception of Bob Dylan and other Western literary and artistic works in China.The late 1970 s and the early 1980 s witnessed an open-door and more tolerant ideology,which made possible the translation,introduction and diffusion of Bob Dylan and his works in various kinds of music books or journals.In 2016,owing to the more open literary and artistic policy and the Nobel Prize effect,Bob Dylan enjoyed more popularity in China and attracted great attention among Chinese scholars.Through a general review of Bob Dylan's reception in China,this thesis,firstly,tends to supplement the vacancy of the translation and introduction of Bob Dylan in China and sheds some light on the ebbs and flows of the reception of foreign literary and artistic works under the influence of ideological manipulation in the past fifty years.Besides,a mutual interpretation and justification between history and theory is expected to explain the history of particular translation in its cultural context.Secondly,the author cites as a case study one of Bob Dylan's masterpieces “Blowin' in the Wind” to approach some problems of present song translation,tries to propose some solutions to them,and provides some references to broaden Bob Dylan's musical culture value as well.