On Lin Yutang's Version Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life From The Perspective Of Cultural Translation

In 1990, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere put forward cultural turn in translation studies in their co-edited work Translation, History, and Culture. In the West, Bassnett establishes the theory of cultural translation, which analyzes translation products from the perspective of translator and target-language culture, and re-recognizes the translator's role and status. In China, the famous translation theorist Liu Miqing publishes his masterpiece An Outlined Theory of Cultranslation, which adds cultural compatibility to the criteria of translation products. Cultural Translation, as a new translation theory, emphasizes on translator's cultural subjectivity and makes the cultural compatibility a criterion of translation products.Lin Yutang is commented by his second daughter Lin Taiyi as"a novelist, essayist, philosopher, philologist and lexicographer."(Lin Taiyi, 1998) However, Lin Yutang's contribution to translation studies should not be ignored. Lin translates a great deal of Chinese classics literature works to the West, which greatly promotes the dissimilation of Chinese culture.In 1935, Lin Yutang publishes his most notable translated work Six Chapters of a Floating Life, which immediately attains great popularity among western readers. Analysis on Lin's Six Chapters of a Floating Life has been carried out from various perspectives, such as linguistics and aesthetics. After the cultural turn in the 1990s, analysis from the angle of culture is in the ascendant. Nevertheless, the majority of analysis is confined to investigation of cultural-loaded words and is not explored in a comprehensive and systematic way.This thesis attempts to analyze Lin Yutang's version of Six Chapters of a Floating Life under the guidance of cultural translation theory, from the angles of translator and the version—Lin Yutang's cultural subjectivity and the version's culture compatibility, which makes the study a more systematic and macro one.This thesis consists of the Introduction, the Main Body and the Conclusion.In the Introduction, the author of the thesis gives a brief review of Lin Yutang and Shen Fu's Six Chapters of a Floating Life, the previous study on Lin Yutang's version and the purpose of the study.The Main Body includes three chapters. Chapter One probes into the theory of cultural translation, which provides the theoretical basis for the thesis. Firstly, the author gives a general survey of cultural translation, including the relationship among language, culture and translation, the cultural turn as well as the content of Susan Bassnett's and Liu Miqing's cultural translation theory. Secondly, two significant concepts in cultural translation—the translator's cultural subjectivity and the version's cultural compatibility are discussed. The author points out that the establishment of cultural translation makes it possible to take translator's cultural subjectivity and cultural compatibility as new approaches to translation studies.Chapter Two explores Lin Yutang's version Six Chapters of a Floating Life from the angle of translator's cultural subjectivity in cultural translation. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part analyzes Lin Yutang as a translator. His translation competence, translation theory and social ideology in his times are introduced. In the second part, Lin's subjectivity reflected in his selection of source text is explored. The author points out that it is Lin's translation purpose and special appreciation for the book that greatly determines his selection of source text, which demonstrate his cultural subjectivity in preparation process of translation. The third part probes into how Lin's cultural subjectivity affects his choice of translation strategy. Cases are analyzed to show Lin's appropriate adoption of domestication and foreignization strategy. Accordingly, the author concludes that Lin employs translation strategy appropriately according to the context, of which the process reflects his cultural translation subjectivity in translating process.Chapter Three analyzes Lin's translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life from the perspective of cultural compatibility. This chapter includes three parts. The first part compares Lin's version with that of Shirley Black's from two aspects—the comprehension of cultural-loaded words and cultural image. The second part probes into the reader reception of Lin's version through case analyzing. The third part analyzes cases from the angel of aesthetic quality, including natural beauty and social beauty, to detect Lin Yutang's aesthetic judgment. Accordingly, the author of the thesis concludes that Lin's version accords with the three principles of cultural compatibility—good comprehension of cultural meaning, good reader reception, as well as good aesthetic judgment.The last part is the Conclusion. Thanks to Lin Yutang's bilingual and bicultural attainments, he fully exerts cultural subjectivity in the whole translation process of Six Chapters of a Floating Life and his version accords with the criteria of cultural compatibility. Lin Yutang's translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life is a great success from the perspective of cultural translation and it enlightens cultural translation practice in the future.