A Study On Styles Of English Translation Of Chinese Essays During Period Of The Republic Of China From Perspective Of Translation And Aesthetics

From the perspective of Translation and Aesthetics,based on the Theory of Translation and Aesthetics,Descriptive Translation Studies and Manipulation Theory,the following research explores into styles of English translations of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China.The present dissertation built up four corpuses,namely,three English translations of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China,respectively by Zhang Peiji,Xu Yingcai and David Pollard,as well as modern British and American essays.A combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative statistics method are applied.The present research explores into styles of the English translations in aspects of formal system and non-formal system through the contrastive analysis of various English versions.Then,the quantitative study is conducted to present an overall description of the characteristics of three English translations on the levels of word,sentence and chapter.Furthermore,a comparative analysis is made between styles of the English translations and English essays to describe their features.On such a basis,exploration is made into the external and internal elements that both exert influence on translator's style of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China.This dissertation concludes with reflections on the translation criteria and personalized features of translator's style of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China,and an attempt to explore an effective model on the study of translator's style of Chinese essays.This dissertation consists of seven chapters,with Chapter Three,Chapter Four and Chapter Five as its main body.Chapter One is introduction,which gives an account of the inspirations of the research topic,sets forth the objectives,difficulties and significance of the research,and outlines its contents,structure,theoretical foundations,methods as well as innovations.Chapter Two is literature review.A brief account is made of the study of translations of Chinese essays,which is followed by a detailed review of the Theory of Translation and Aesthetics and its current developments.An introduction is also made of the study of translator's style and the study of Cultural-school Translation Theories.Chapter Three makes a qualitative analysis of the styles of English translations of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China.It gives a brief account of essays and essays during the period of the Republic of China,as well as styles of the English translations in aspects of formal system and non-formal system through the contrastive analysis of various English versions,under the theoretical framework of Translation and Aesthetics.Chapter Four conducts the quantitative study of the styles of English translations of Chinese essays during the period of the Republic of China.Attempts are made to describe the styles of three major essay translators through the statistics analysis of three English translations on the levels of word,sentence and chapter.Chapter Five aims to make a contrastive study of styles of the English translations and English essays.It explores into the stylistic characteristics of English essays as well as the similarities and differences between three English translations and British and American essays in terms of the levels of word,sentence and chapter.Chapter Six analyzes the formation of translator's style of essays during the period of the Republic of China.From the perspective of Manipulation Theory,this chapter illustrates on how external and internal elements exert influence on translator's style of essays during the period of the Republic of China.External elements consist of ideology,sponsorship and mainstream literary concepts,while internal ones involve a translator's translating purposes,language,cultural and literary proficiencies as well as translation principles.Chapter Seven,the last chapter,is conclusion.It reflects on the translation criteria and personalized features of translator's style of essays during the period of the Republic of China,and attempts to explore an effective model on the study of translator's style of Chinese essays.The dissertation concludes with thoughts on the values and limitations of the present study and future research topics.The present research can be innovative in three aspects.First,it features new subject of research.The research topic is innovative,which focuses on essays during the period of the Republic of China and analyzes the styles of English translations.The study helps to promote the research on English translations of Chinese essays and broaden the domain of translation research.Second,it offers new corpus datum.On the basis of English translations by Zhang Peiji and Liu Shicong,this research adds translations by David Pollard and Xu Yingcai,which increases new corpus datum to the research on English translations of essays and expands the scope of study.Third,it employs new research methods.The combination of qualitative and quantitative approach enables this research to be objective and scientific.Besides,the integration of Theory of Translation and Aesthetics,Descriptive Translation Studies and Manipulation Theory makes a multidimensional and multi-perspective study possible.