The Influence Of Socio-cultural Factors On Translators

As a coverall literature masterpiece, Hong Lou Meng gained high status in Chinese literature history. The existing two complete English versions are translated by the Yang couple and David Hawkes and his son-in-law John Minford respectively. Each of the two versions has its'strong points and it's hard to tell which one is better. Although both of them are cooperative works and appeared in the same period, there are many differences between them. So the reason should be discussed. Nowadays most of the research focus on micro level, little attention has been given to the study of socio-cultural factors'influence on translators on macro level.This dissertation attempts to research the issue of the socio-cultural factors'influence on translators. It is presented in four chapters. Chapter One offers that translation studies has taken a cultural turn, cultural approach has been involved in the study of translation, and then introduces semantic translation and communicative translation as two strategies in translation. Chapter Two states the status and artistic achievements of the Chinese classical novel Hong Lou Meng, and introduces the two complete English versions and their translators, and at last, reviews the existing studies on its translation. Chapter Three is the center part of this dissertation. It is a comparison of the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. The comparison involves seven perspectives: translated title, color culture, religious culture, food culture, addressing terms, sensitive contents, and portraying of minor characters'images. By these detailed comparison, a rule is found that the Yangs'translation is author-based, Hawkes'translation is reader-based, and they respectively choose semantic translation and communicative translation. In the last chapter, the socio-cultural constraints, which influence the translators, are listed and analyzed: historical factors, cultural standpoints, political factors, ethic factors, and class-conscious factors. It is under these factors'influence, the translators'choice of translation strategy and diction are decided.Knowing some socio-cultural factors could influence the translator, we can follow those factors more effectively and gain more freedom to exert our subjectivity in the possible scope simultaneously, so as to boost the development of translation studies.