The Study Of The Selection Of Foreign Literary Translation Under The Horizons Of Cultural School (1949-1976)

Literary translation in China between 1949 and 1976 has long been neglected. Only in recent years have the scholars paid attention to them in our country. However, few scholars have studied the selection of literary translation in this period, and still fewer people have done researches on this subject from the perspective of cultural translation studies. This thesis aims to do a thorough study of the selection of literary translation of the particular period from this perspective.The theoretical framework of this thesis is the Rewriting theory of Lefevere, the representative of Cultural School, supported by Even-Zhora's related theories about the position of translated literature in the literary polysystem. According to Lefevere, translation is a rewriting of an original text. In the translation process, the translator's translation activity is unavoidably influenced and constrained by historical times and social-culture,which makes translation become a kind of rewriting, transformation or recreation of two cultures, thoughts and ideological discourse. In this sense, Lefevere holds that the patronage, ideology and poetics in the target culture are the three primary powers that manipulate literary translation, of which the constraints and influences on literary translation by ideology are more prominent.Because of the special political and historical background, the selection of literary translation in the period from 1949 to 1976 is highly ideologized, which made it possess distinct class nature and submissiveness. That is, the selection was under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and its central government and always followed the literary policies of the Party, which must conform to the dominant ideology and poetics so as to serve the needs of constructing our socialist country. According to the significant historical events that occurred in this period and the need of this thesis, the years from 1949 to 1976 are divided into two periods: the"17 years"and the"Cultural Revolution"period. This thesis is concerned with the social-cultural contexts of the two periods in which the selection of literary translation takes place, the source countries, writers, texts, and the characteristics of the selections in specific contexts, etc. Through the study of the changes of source countries, source writers and source texts and the amount of selective numbers, the thesis focuses on the patronage's macroscopic manipulation on the selection of literary translation in these two periods respectively through ideology and poetics, the position and function of translated literature in the literary polysystem and the role translators play in the selections.Taking advantage of Rewriting theory and related theories about the position of translated literature in the literary polysystem, this thesis conducted a comprehensive study and analysis of the collected data of the selections of the two periods. (1) The selection of literary translation of the two periods was extremely manipulated by patronage, ideology and poetics. But because of different power discourse, ideology and poetics of the two periods were different as well, which made the selections of the two periods take on different characteristics: namely, in the"17 years", the Soviet-Russian literature and the literature from other socialist countries were translated and introduced in large numbers, while the literature from the Occident mainly focused on classical works. In the"Cultural Revolution"period, although literary translation"withered", the open translations were more from the Soviet Union and some fraternal countries; generally speaking, the literature from the Occident was rejected and excluded. Besides, under the manipulation of different ideology and poetics, translated literature of the two periods occupies different positions in the literary polysystem and it has different influences on national literary creation. (2) Rewriting theory is practical and applicable. Using this theory to study Chinese translation is of high explanation power and adoptability. But Rewriting theory overstresses the manipulation of translation activity by ideology, while it neglects many other influencing factors like translators, translation purposes.This thesis makes use of Rewriting theory to study the selection of literary translation which provides a new angle for further studying translation relations, the literary relations between China and abroad which are reflected by translation relations, and the development and change of Sino-foreign countries'relations.The whole thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter 1 is introduction. It introduces the background, significance, motivations and rationality of the present study. Meanwhile, it delineates the times of the two periods covered by this thesis.Chapter 2 is literature review which reviews and comments on the developmental course of cultural translation studies both at home and abroad and the literary translation studies from 1949 to 1976.Chapter 3 elaborates the theoretical framework. It introduces the Rewriting theory and the related theories about the position of translated literature in the polysystem; besides, it delineates the concepts of ideology, patronage and poetics.Chapter 4 investigates the background and the characteristics of the selection of literary translation in the"17 years". It analyzes how patronage, ideology and poetics manipulate the selection of literary translation in this period. On this basis, it explores the translators'subjectivity in selecting foreign literary works, the position of translated works in the literary polysystem and its influences on national literary creation in this period.Chapter 5 analyzes the selection of literary translation manipulated by the dominant ideology and poetics which are different from those in the"17 years"in the"Cultural Revolution"period. The translators'subjectivity in selecting foreign literary works, the position of translated works in the literary polysystem and its influences on national literary creation are discussed.Chapter 6 is the conclusion of the thesis in which the main findings, the significance for further study and the limitations of the thesis are discussed.