Recasting Out Of Special Motives

Late Qing fiction translation, the third large-scale translation activity in the history of Chinese translation, was a symbol of literary and cultural communication between China and foreign countries. The translations of some translators were not faithful to the original works from the perspective of traditional translation criteria. But under the unique social context, their main purpose to translate was intended to awaken the public and save China. On this point, the translation strategies they used were reasonable from the historical point of view. Late Qing fiction translation not only improved the status of Chinese fictions and enriched traditional Chinese fictions, but also promoted the development of traditional Chinese fictions. Moreover, Late Qing fiction translation shocked the traditional Chinese values and cultures, and influenced the fictionists'aesthetic concepts and literary tastes as well. What's more, Late Qing fiction translation helped the modernization of Chinese culture.But every coin has two sides. Late Qing fiction translation inevitably had its negative impact. Too much attention was paid to the political purpose of the fictions. Misunderstanding and transliteration affected the reservation of the content and style of the original fictions.The thesis will apply Andre Lefevere's rewriting theory to the study of Late Qing fiction translation and discuss how ideology, poetics and patronage influence the translation activities in the Late Qing Dynasty. The thesis also tries to prove whether the unique strategies used by translators are reasonable from a historical point of view and analyze the influence of Late Qing fiction translation.The thesis contains seven chapters. Chapter One is divided into five parts: the background of the study, general descriptions of Late Qing fiction translation, the significance of the study on Late Qing fiction translation, literature review of Late Qing fiction translation, and an introduction of objectives, approach and structure of the thesis. Chapter Two introduces the historical and social background of Late Qing fiction translation.The following three chapters expound the three factors that influence Late Qing fiction translation. Chapter Three describes the influence of ideology on Late Qing fiction translation. Chapter Four presents the influence of poetics that can be divided into literature poetics and translation poetics. Chapter Five deals with patronage's influence.Chapter Six describes the impact brought by Late Qing fiction translation, both positive and negative impact.On the basis of the above analysis, Chapter Seven summarizes the significance and influence of Late Qing fiction translation, and clarifies the importance of rewriting theory for the study of Late Qing fiction translation.