Literary Translation Around The May 4～(th) Movement: A Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

Literary translation around the May 4th Movement played an important role inChinese translation history and it exerted great influence on modern Chinese literature,therefore, it has attracted great attention from the domestic academia. There are manybooks and papers devoted to the research into it from different perspectives. Thisthesis probes into literary translation around the May 4th Movement, to be exact,between 1897 and 1927, in the light of polysystem theory.Polysystem theory regards translated literature as an indispensable part of theliterary polysystem of a culture. The position it assumes in the literary polysystemwill have some effects on its behavior. When occupying a central position, translatedliterature participates actively in shaping the center of the polysystem and serves as aninnovatory force, not only introducing new ideas, but also introducing new literarymodels. In this case, translators tend to break home conventions and adopt thestrategy of foreignization to produce adequate translations. When taking a peripheralposition, translated literature adheres to norms which have been rejected and becomesa conservative factor which has no influence on major processes. In this situation,translators usually apply the strategy of domestication and produce translations whichare more acceptable in the target culture.The Chinese literary polysystem experienced a turning point around the May 4thMovement and the position of translated literature moved from the periphery to thecenter of the Chinese literary polysystem. It was during this period that literarytranslation became active in China. This thesis first gives a general description of thehistorical background, representative translators and characteristics of literarytranslation around the May 4th Movement, then it concentrates on the study of literarytranslation at that time from the perspective of polysystem theory. Before the May 4thMovement (1897-1919), translated literature was kept on the periphery of the Chineseliterary polysytem. Since the purpose of translation was to introduce new ideas to enlighten the Chinese people and to facilitate innovation, works which wereconsidered to have educational and political significance were chosen to be translated.Translators subjected themselves to the norms in the target culture and adopted thestrategy of domestication. During this period, disorder in translation was a commonphenomenon. After the May 4th Movement (1919-1927), translated literature finallymoved into the center of the literary polysystem and functioned as an innovativefactor. Translation was regarded as a major means to regenerate traditional Chineseculture, therefore translators adhered to the norms realized in the original text andadopted foreignization to take in some new elements from western culture. Finally,the thesis elaborates on the influence of literary translation on modern Chineseliterature.To sum up, the application of polysystem theory to the study of literarytranslation around the May 4th Movement in China ensures us a better understandingof the translation phenomena at the time and makes people aware of the importantfunction of translation in the development of a country's literature.