Translation Studies In A Descriptive Approach: A Case Study Of Two English Versions Of Luotuo Xiangzi

Traditional translation studies view translation as a language transfer, relishing the comparison between the translation and the source text to test the fidelity of the translation with some supposed translation criteria. Although contributing to the development of translation at the beginning, traditional translation studies finally led to a deadlock in translation studies.Frustrated with the unattainable goal of "equivalence" and inspired by the emerging Cultural Studies, some western scholars have forged a new approach in translation studies, namely, a descriptive approach since the 1950s with their representative achievements of the Polysystem in the late 1970s-1980s and Lefevere's rewriting theory in the 1990s. This approach studies translation as a cultural activity under the background of its social environment, thus fundamentally renewing our concept of translation. With its contribution to the great expansion in this field, the descriptive paradigm has become the mainstream in Western translation studies.The descriptive translation studies are of great significance in China where translation is largely considered as a craft or skill. Thus, the author is to do a case study mainly within the framework of Lefevere's rewriting theory as well as drawing on other theories in this approach, which is to show that translation is a cultural activity constrained by patronage, ideology, poetics and Universe of Discourse.The texts chosen to be studied are two English versions of Lao She's magnum opus Luotuo Xiangzi, namely, Evan King's Rickshaw Boy in 1945 and Shi Xiaoqing's Camel Xiangzi in 1981. First, the author does a comparative study of the two translations at the macro level, focusing on the influence of cultural environments in producing translations and the rewritings of the two English versions at the macro level. Then, the author does a comparative study of the two English versions at the micro level to illustrate how the cultural environment resulted in different translations of the same source text.This descriptive study of the two English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi well displays that translation is a rewriting of the original, constrained by patronage, ideology, poetics and the Universe of Discourse. Moreover, it finds that translations are both facts of the culture that hosts them and facts that can transcend the target culture. In addition, it shows that the copyright holder of the original plays a role in the production of translation, too.