A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of Animal Farm From The Perspective Of Toury's Translation Norm Theory

As one of Orwell's representative works,Animal Farm holds an essential status in world literature classics.This allegorical novel embodies Orwell's sympathy for the working class,and his pursuit of democracy,freedom and equality.Since the reform and opening up,especially in the 21^st century,numerous excellent Chinese translations have been emerging.As of now,there are 36 Chinese translations,which reflects that Animal Farm's translation research is still of great value at present.In this thesis,translations of Fu Weici,Rong Rude and Li Jihong are selected as the research objects.Taking Toury's Translation Norm Theory as the research framework,this thesis will make a comparative analysis of Animal Farm's translations from the perspective of preliminary norms,operational norms and initial norms.First,in preliminary norms,this thesis will focus on the analysis of translation policy behind the selection of translators and reconstruct the preliminary norms of the translators.Then,from the perspective of the translations itself,this thesis will make a comparative analysis of the translator's translation strategies in substantial cases to reconstruct the operational norms.Finally,in initial norms,this thesis will summarize and deduce the initial norms observed by different translators from a macro perspective based on the analysis of the former two parts.At the same time,this thesis attempts to consider the social and cultural background in the specific analysis to explain and reconstruct the translation behavior more comprehensively and systematically.Through comparative analysis,the author finds that three translators with unique backgrounds have different translation modes.Fu Weici's translation embodies his inclination to the target language?acceptability?in form and his preference to the source language?adequacy?in content.Rong Rude reflects his translation idea of acceptability,emphasizing the literary value of the translation in the target language.Li Jihong,on the other hand,embodies his inclination to adequacy,which makes his language concise and plain and highly restores the original language style of Orwell.Through a comparative analysis of these three translators from different backgrounds and times,this thesis interprets the translation of Animal Farm from multiple perspectives to discover the translation laws abode by different translators.Besides,the complex nature of translation can be explained at more levels under the guidance of Translation Norm Theory.