Translator's Adaptation And Selection

Whether a translated work can survive in the target language market directly depends on its translator. However, translation studies, for a very long time, focus on the nature, criteria and techniques of translation, ignoring the translator and the translation process. The nineteen seventies witnessed the "cultural turn" in translation research in the west that the translator gained an increasing attention and great importance is attached to the study on the subjectivity of the translator. The subjectivity had not been put to priority until a "translator-centered" principle was brought forward by Hu Gengshen(胡庚申).Employing Darwin's principle of natural selection to the translation research, Hu Gengshen defined translation as "a selection activity of the translator's adaptation to fit the translational eco-environment"(胡庚申2004:219)In the process of translation, all the adaptation and selection are conducted by the translator. The translator's adaptation is selective, meanwhile, the selection is adaptive. The translator's adaptation/selection is embodied by three aspects:adaptation/selection to needs, adaptation/selection to competence and adaptation/selection to translational eco-environment.Lao Can You Ji (《老残游记》),as one of the four novels of denunciation of late Qing-dynasty, has been published more than a hundred years. The novel exposes people's miserable life and the darkness of the society and its language arts is considered preeminent among the novels of the late Qing dynasty. In 1929, Chapter 3 of this novel translated by Authur Weley was published in a magazine named Asia. Among all the English versions published afterwards, Yang Xianyi(杨宪益) and Gladys Yang's(戴乃迭)version is the most popular one and has been republished for many times. In their version, all the language elements reflect the translators'translation strategies in terms of different needs and the translators'subjectivity.This thesis is based on the objective analysis of Lao Can You Ji and its English version by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang. The author of this thesis takes Hu Gengshen's approach to translation as adaptation and selection as the theoretical framework. By comparing the source text and the target text, from the perspectives of the translator's adaptation/selection in terms of needs, their own competence and the translation eco-environment, the thesis will explore how the translators reproduce the unique style of the original which is well-known at home and abroad. Analyzing the English version of the Yangs, the study will explore why they chose to translate Lao Can You Ji according to external needs and their internal needs; what strategies they selected to adapt to the original style on the language dimension; what's more, what strategies they chose to adapt to the original culture in order to cater to the target readers'desire.Hu Gengshen's approach to translation as adaptation and selection provides us a brand-new perspective for the studies on translators and the translating process. This thesis studies the translators'adaptation and selection, analyzing Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang's translation process of Lao Can You Ji. In addition, this research can be used as a case study to prove the feasibility of Hu's approach.