A Study Of The Interaction Between Translation And Social Culture

Since the 1970s,there has been a new breakthrough in the field of translation studies,with the emergence of a“cultural turn”in translation studies.Lefevere(1992)proposes the Rewriting Theory which enhances translation studies in literature,helps to make translation literature no longer marginalized as a foreign culture,but has a close interaction with the culture of the country into which it is translated.This Side of Paradise is the first novel written by F.Scott Fitzgerald(1920)which has important literary research value.The study of translation of Fitzgerald's works in China started late in the 1980s,and has gone through a long process from negation to full affirmation.To enrich and perfect the study on Fitzgerald can help the whole translation literature,and thus promote the research and development of translation literature.This study attempts to make a comparative study of the four Chinese versions of This Side of Paradise(Zhang Yanmin 2009,Yao Naiqiang 2013,Wu Jianguo 2016 and Jin Shaoyu 2016).The research questions are as follows:1.What is the overall linguistic style of the four Chinese versions of Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise?2.How does Chinese social culture in the 21st century influence the four Chinese versions?3.How do the four Chinese versions respond to these influences?Through qualitative and quantitative research,this research on the four Chinese versions has answered the above three questions and discovered that:1.As to the 1~stt question of overall linguistic style of the four Chinese versions,the Corpus-based research discovered that:the four versions are in line with the rules of Chinese discourse,and they all prefer to use the first person and the second person.Zhang Yanmin's version has a high lexical density.In Yao Naiqiang's version,nouns are mostly used,and short sentences are preferred.The use of vocabulary in Wu Jianguo's version is the closest to the source text.Jin Shaoyu's version is at a compromise level in terms of lexical density,high frequency words and average sentence length.2.As to the 2~ndd question that how Chinese social culture in the 21st century influences the four Chinese versions,(1)from the ideological point of view,in the 21st century,Yao Naiqiang and Jin Shaoyu choose the literal personal pronouns,Zhang Yanmin attaches great importance to the translation of religious words.Wu Jianguo's version uses literal translation and annotation to translate culture-loaded words and directly translates erotic words.(2)From the perspective of poetics,in terms of sentence structure,the versions of Wu Jianguo and Jin Shaoyu translate long English sentences into simple Chinese sentences,while the translations of Zhang Yanmin and Yao Naiqiang try to make the structure of long English sentences similar.In terms of language style,Wu Jianguo likes to use words with Chinese characteristics,while the other three prefer literal translation.(3)From the perspective of patronage,at the beginning of the 21st century,although the scale and style of the four publishing houses are different,they all chose to publish the Chinese version of This Side of Paradise,which shows that it fits the current social and cultural environment in the 21st century and conforms to Chinese mainstream ideology.3.As to the 3~rdd question that how the four Chinese versions respond to these influences,the two aspects of Chinese etiquette civilization and traditional religion people-oriented are well reflected in Zhang Yanmin's version.Yao Naiqiang chooses literal translation in terms of vocabulary,syntax and culture,which also caters to the taste of ordinary readers.Wu Jianguo's version is one of the most interactive versions with social culture.It focuses on the translation of honorific titles,the language expression with Chinese characteristics,the use of four-character structure and the literal translation of erotic words.Jin Shaoyu pays more attention to the words with cultural images and is good at translating long English sentences into short Chinese sentences.Therefore,translation has an interactive relationship with social culture,and translation is greatly influenced and restricted by social culture.Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise has been translated into China,which reflects the needs of Chinese society and culture in the 21st century.It is also an in-depth and supplementary study of Fitzgerald's literary works.And now China has accepted Fitzgerald's works,which proves that it fits the social and cultural context of China,and has the role of reference and reflection for our youth culture today.It is precisely because the“youth culture”described in This Side of Paradise coincides with today's social culture that this book can be spread and translated,and accepted by the majority of readers.This study not only reflects the in-depth study and dissemination of Fitzgerald's works in China,but also reflects the characteristics of contemporary“youth culture”,which deserves our reflection.