| Shen Congwen is one of the most acclaimed writers in modern Chinese literature, whose works have been translated into more than ten languages. Of the English translations of stories alone, there have been 70 translations out of his 44 stories. Given that these translations are different with time, publisher and translator, the following questions present themselves: what differences exist among the translations, what has caused these differences, and what different effects do they produce?;Despite the number of translations, studies of these translations are limited. There exist a few papers and MA theses, mainly on Gladys Yang's translations. Few studies of other translations have been found.;This project is the first in-depth study of the English translations of Shen's stories. As an acclaimed stylist, Shen's unique style has gained him world-renown but also created translation problems. This study focuses on his narrative style -- narrative commentaries and lyrical narration -- to see how his style is represented in translation. Also, the translators' overt narrative intrusions -- their added notes as paratexts -- constitute another aspect of the study focus.;This study has discovered that the biggest difference is that between translations by the scholar and the non-scholar translators, rather than that between those by the L1 and the L2 translators. The scholar translators exert visible efforts to produce more adequate translations, including keeping the original commentary functions and lyrical narrative mode, and adding notes to explicate what is implied in the original texts. The non-scholar L1 translators tend to render translations more acceptable to the target readers' tastes. The L2 translators closely follow original narrative structures, and the earlier translators more often resort to deletion or radical changes.;It is believed that the significance of a translation depends on the positions of the SL/TL, of the original author, and of the translator. Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, trajectory, capital, and field prove to have explanatory power for translators' choices. The various tendencies betray the translators' dispositions, which are products of the structured habitus that influences the choices of the translation strategies in a subconscious way. |
