A Study Of Sinologist Patrick Hanan’s Translator Behavior In Quelling The Demons’ Revolt

Sinologists are a group of translators in Chinese culture translation,and one of the important ways of Chinese culture spread abroad.Patrick Hanan,an American Sinologist,has a great reputation in the study of Chinese literature,and also translates ten Chinese novels,making a great contribution to the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature.His last translation of the novel,Quelling the Demons’ Revolt,is praised by Lu Xun as the first work of Chinese magic fiction.And Hanan also regarded it as crucial evidence to study the history of Chinese vernacular novels.This thesis combines the Translator Behavior Criticism theory with Hanan’s translation thoughts(preservation and assimilation)and takes Hanan’s translation of Quelling the Demons’ Revolt as an example to analyze his translator behavior.In the“truth-seeking-utility-attaining” continuum evaluation model,this thesis explores the effect of Hanan’s translation behavior and reveals how Hanan’s academic orientation,translation selection,and translation thoughts influence his translation practice.The main findings of this study are as follows:(1)Hanan’s preservation pays more attention to the loyalty of the translation,which is close to the original text,so the translation behavior is biased towards truth-seeking.Hanan’s assimilation pays more attention to the readability of the target text and satisfies the reader’s expectation so that the translation behavior is biased towards the utility-attaining.(2)Hanan’s study of Chinese literature prompted him to choose the 20-chapter version for translation.In addition,he takes translation as a way to deepen the study of Chinese literature with a rigorous attitude,respecting historical materials,which shapes his truth-seeking translation style,and trying to preserve Chinese culture and history through translation as far as possible.(3)According to different contexts,Hanan adopted different translation methods to different translation behaviors based on comprehensive consideration of the historical background,the original author’s intention,the expectations of Chinese and Western readers,and the needs of Chinese literature research.In the translation of the storyteller’s taoyu,character reconstruction,and civic rebellion theme,Hanan’s translation tends to seek the truth.In the translation of paragraph adjustment and demonization,Hanan’s translation tends to attain utility.In general,Hanan’s translator behavior moves between “truth-seeking-utility-attaining”,achieving the effect of truthseeking as the base and utility-attaining as the application.The rationality of the translation is high overall.By analyzing the translator behavior effect in Hanan’s translation of literature,history,religion,social entertainment,and other details in the translation of Quelling the Demons’ Revolt,this thesis gives a glimpse of the Sinologist’s methods of translating Chinese literature and his contribution to the “going out” of Chinese culture.It not only fills the defects of the case study of Hanan’s translation Quelling the Demons’ Revolt,but also provides some reference and thinking for the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature.