A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Selected Works Of Mao Zedong

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, outstanding achievements have been turned out concerning Mao's poetry rather than his political writings (i.e. all political essays apart from Mao's poetry), for they are merely viewed as political literature offering insight into the writer's thinking, Chinese revolution and construction, and thus the artistic value has not been paid due attention. Even if some researchers have touched on Selected Works of Mao Zedong (hereinafter referred to as Selected Works), they rest on the study of its linguistic features and writing skills. Relatively few are concerned with Selected Works from the angle of translation, and limited in fidelity for political writings. On the other hand, translation studies are moving towards an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural orientation. Hie scope of translation studies and practice has been broadly expanded to include non-literary translation as well. Political writings that account for an important part of non-literary writings, have their own peculiarities.As a typical political documentation, Selected Works is the perpetual scripture advancing Marxism and Leninism as well as the brilliant recording outcome of Chinese revolutionary experience. Therefore, translation studies on Selected Works help to diffuse Chinese culture and offer the foreign readership a full-scale picture of the revolutionary history in China. Herein, the author of this thesis attempts to conduct a multi-perspective study of Selected Works from the angle of translation. By comparing two English versions respectively published by Foreign Languages Press and Lawrence & Wishart, the author intends to explore the theoretical basis for the existing differences andproblems, aiming at getting some inspirations for non-literary translation, in particular, the translation of political writings.This thesis consists of four chapters besides introduction and conclusion.Introduction briefs the theme and the basic structure of this thesis.The thesis starts with an account of Selected Works in Chapter One: its Chinese edition, English translations and repercussions at home and abroad, especially elaborating the extrinsic study of two significant versions. Chapter Two presents a comparative study of two versions of Selected Works from the intra-textual perspective: stylistics and textual analysis at lexical, syntactic and contextual levels. Differences in response to content and form and reproduction of the original style reflect the merits and demerits of the two versions. Chapter Three probes into a comparative study of two versions of Selected Works from the extra-textual perspective: socio-historical context and socio-cultural context. In particular, allusion translation is highlighted in study of cultural elements in Selected Works. The employment of "domestication" and "foreignization" is explicated in this regard. Chapter Four explores the underlying theoretical basis like Lefevere's "ideology" theory and Nida's "functional equivalence" theory which governs the translation process and results in differences in translated texts, and translation principles are proposed for political writings.Conclusion sums up the whole thesis and points out its limitations.