A Comparative Study Of Feminist Consciousness In Two Chinese Translations Of The Awakening From The Perspective Of Gender Differences

Since the “cultural turn” in translation studies in the 1990 s,the combination of feminism,gender and translation has been an important part of the translation study.On this basis,feminist translation theory has been gradually formed,providing a new perspective for translation studies.Feminist translation theorists are opposed to putting women in an inferior position in literature field and the society,calling for the visibility of women’s status in texts and expressing the voice of women.To investigate gender’s effects on translator’s practice,this thesis offers a comparative study on two Chinese versions of The Awakening translated by female translator Yang Yingmei and male translator Liu Xinmin from the perspective of feminist translation theory.The following two questions are discussed in this thesis:First,do female translators understand original texts written by female writers better than male translators? Second,do female translators reproduce feminist consciousness of original texts better than male translators?The following conclusions are drawn from the comparative analysis of two Chinese versions of The Awakening: Due to the same and direct understanding of the female body and mental feelings,the female translator Yang Yingmei generally has a deeper understanding of feminist consciousness expressed in the original text.In translation practice,Yang Yingmei sometimes takes strategies to identify her female identity in translation.In most cases,these translation strategies adopted by the female translator play a positive role in reproducing the feminist theme and the transmission of information in the original text.However,sometimes the interference and change of the original text also affects the message expressed by original author.So it should be base on deep comprehension of original text to avoid affecting some language arrangement points.