Norms In Fiction Translation And Translators' Reaction Towards Them In The Late Qing And Early Republic Of China

The late Qing and early Republic of China witnessed a boom of fiction translation in China. Due to the impressive number of the translated novels and their great impact upon the Chinese society at that time and afterwards, fiction translation of this period ranked irrefutably among the few translation climaxes in the history of China. However, the fiction translators and their works had been long ignored in the most part of the 20th century. In the value system of traditional translation theory, these translators were criticized for not being faithful to the original and their works of translation accordingly could not be accepted as proper translations.Different perspectives always result in different judgment on the same issue. In order to evaluate fiction translation in the late Qing and early Republic more objectively, we have to adopt a new perspective, turning our attention from textual analysis to the social background and cultural needs of that period. For this purpose, the dissertation makes use of the extra-textual materials during that period, such as the prefaces and postscripts to the translated fictions, forewords to the newspapers and magazines as well as book reviews, to study the norms of fiction translation and the translators'reaction towards them. Therefore, we can have a better understanding of the complicated social, cultural and literary norms in which the translators were entangled. Consequently, the great efforts made...