A Study Of Liang Shiqiu's Translation Of Shakespeare

Liang Shiqiu was not only a prominent prose writer but also a great translator in the 20th century. His name was closely associated with Shakespeare as he managed to translate the Complete Works of Shakespeare into Chinese all by himself. However, little study has been done concerning Liang Shiqiu or his translation of Shakespeare due to the historical reasons. The present author intends to conduct a study of the relevant issues of Liang Shiqiu's translation of Shakespeare and answer the following questions: what are the factors that influenced Liang's choice of Shakespeare? what strategies did he apply in his translation and what were his contribution to the translation of Shakespeare and what were his limitations?This thesis consists of the following parts:Introduction: The background of this study, the research questions and the significance of this study are introduced.Chapter One: Literature Review. In this chapter, the present author presented her understanding of the cultural turn and Andre Lefevere's theory of Rewriting and Manipulation.Chapter Two: Study of Liang Shiqiu's Choice of Shakespeare. The present author deplored the influencing factors in Liang's choice of Shakespeare from three angels: the historical and cultural background, Liang's artistic thoughts and the influence of patronage, mainly Hu Shi and the New Crescent Society.Chapter Three: Study of the Strategies Liang Applied. According to Lefevere, the most important factors that determine the image of a literary work as projected by the translation are the translator's ideology and the poetics dominant in the receiving culture at the time the translation is made. The ideology dictates the basic strategy the translator is going to use and therefore also dictates solutions to problems concerned with both the "universe of discourse" expressed in the original and the language the original itself is expressed in. Furthermore, ideological evaluation of the source culture and the source text also contributes to the choice of translation strategy. Shakespeare is the pride of the Western culture and to show a "true" Shakespeare was one of the main goals of Liang Shiqiu's translation. Therefore, Liang mainly adopted the strategy of "faithfulness " and...