On The Translation Strategies In Lin Yutang's C-E Translation-A Study From The Perspective Of Postcolonialism

As a great writer and translator, Lin Yutang as well as his works have been broadly studied at home in recent years. However, most of these studies have been focusing on Lin Yutang's English writings, and although many of his C-E translations have also been explored, these studies mainly specialize in a certain topic about a certain work. There are seldom wide-range and large-scale observations and investigations on his translation strategies of his C-E translations. The study of postcolonial translation observes translation practices from the perspective of postcolonialism. So far, China's postcolonial translation studies has been fruitful, but there has not been much study of postcolonialism combined with concrete texts. From the perspective of postcolonial translation, this thesis selects several of Lin Yutang's C-E works as sample texts. Studies on translation practices of the sample texts are conducted. It is expected to have a discussion of Dr. Lin's choice of translating strategies during C-E translation for certain purposes under a certain historical environment, and have a further understanding of the social-cultural significance of his translations.After a brief review of the theories about postcolonilism, postcolonial translation, domesticating and foreignizing translation, Skopos Theory and Dr. Lin's C-E translation, this thesis proceeds to conduct a detailed case study on the sample works chosen from Dr. Lin's C-E translations. It is generally believed that both linguistic and cultural factors are involved in translation and therefore should be embraced in translation studies. In addition to the inductive elaboration, this thesis also makes an attempt of statistical analysis of the sample works in terms of linguistic and cultural aspects except the syntactic aspect and literary style, which are hard to be surveyed statistically. Finally it comes to a conclusion that Dr. Lin tends to adopt flexible translation strategies during his translation operation, and domesticating translation strategy has been most frequently used. Foreignizing translation strategy is also a significant tool during Dr. Lin's translation, and the combination of both translation strategies also plays a very important role in his translation though it is the least frequently used of the three strategies. In view of the statistical results achieved under the guidance of Skopos Theory, this thesis proves that Dr. Lin's translation strategies vary with his intentions affected by the environment he lives in. This not only helps us better understand Dr. Lin's C-E translation during a special period and deepens the study of works by Lin Yutang, but also provides valuable references and methods for the study of other works written in similar situations or periods.It can be concluded from the perspective of postcolonial translation that Dr. Lin, whether adopting foreignizing, domesticating or combination of both translation strategies, mainly intends to create a national identity of China in the mind of the western world through the introduction of unique Chinese cultural factors and the communication between two cultures.