On Mutual Influences Of Translated Novels In China(1898-1919) And The Translation Norms

The current translation researches in China are actually from "the source-oriented approach", which results in the low position of the translator and the translated works, and produces binary opposition between source texts and target texts. Since 1970s, Gideon Toury, on basis of Even-Zohar's "polysystem", put forward the "target-oriented approach" and "translation norms". In this paper, I apply his theory to a case study——the mutual influences between the translation norms in receiving culture and the translated novels in the period from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China (1898-1919). This period is the most prosperous period in Chinese literary translation history and novel is the most typical literary form during this period. From the angle of the target text, I first study the influences of the translation norms in two fields, that is, the preliminary norms on the choice of translation types, and the operational norms on the translation specialties. I borrow Lefevere's new terminology: ideology and poetics, as two major categories of translation norm's concrete forms and make a detailed and deep research in four respects, namely, the choice of type, the social-cultural environment, the translator, and the reader. Next, I analyze, in turn, the translated novel's opposite influences on ideology and poetics in the receiving culture. At last, I come to three conclusions: ①Translation process is regulated and influenced by various translation norms in the receiving culture. ②Whether translation quality is high or low, translated works will exert influences on literary and extraliterary systems. Therefore translated works are comparatively independent. It breaks the binary oppositions between sources texts and target texts. ③This research raises translation and translator's position and helps to establish translation as a serious subject.