Translator Behavior Of Tess In Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Traditionally, translation is considered as a cross-language activity, and whether the version is faithful to the source text is regarded as the criterion of translation review. The "cultural turn" which occurred in the 1970s produces a new angle for translation studies. It puts translation in the context of politics, society, history and culture to study. Thus, the field of translation studies is widened, and the external factors that influence translation have attracted much more attention.The manipulation theory put forward by Lefevere is the product of "cultural turn", and the main part of the Manipulation School as well. Lefevere points out that in the process of translation, translational action is manipulated by ideology, poetics and patronage from beginning to end. These three elements constrain translators'translating behavior. Ideology determines the text and translation strategies that the translators are going to adopt. Poetics plays a significant role in the language choice. Patronage influences the production and publication of the versions. Thereupon, translation is not only the duplication or imitation, but also the cultural mediation and manipulation.The present thesis takes Zhang Guruo and Feng Zhesheng's versions of Tess of the D'urbervilles (Tess for short in the following) as the research object and adopts the manipulation theory as the theoretical framework in order to analyze how social ideology, personal ideology, poetics and patronage in the target language system manipulate translator's translating behavior. Through comparative description and analysis of the differences from the perspective of style, content and diction in the two versions, the author finds that these two Chinese versions have their own characteristics. Adhering to the prevailing ideology and poetics in the time when he lives and his personal ideology, Zhang Guruo's version remains faithful to the original content and reflects the style of the original. In contrast, according to Feng Zhesheng's personal ideology, the prevailing social ideology and poetics in the time when he lives, he deletes some descriptions of the plots and psychological activities, but his version remains faithful to the content of the original as a whole. This phenomenon displays that since the translators are manipulated by different ideology, poetics and patronage, the translation strategies that hey adopts and employs are quite different.Based on the above study, the author of the thesis arrives at the following conclusion:as a social being, the translator's behavior is inevitably influenced by the environment of the society. The manipulations of social ideology, poetics and patronage manifest the passive property of translator's behavior while the manipulation of the translator's personal ideology manifests its initiative property. The initiative property of using translation activity to realize the service for society displays translator's social nature. The translator's translating activity is constrained by the environment of the society, which manifests that the translator's behavior is characterized by socialization. Thereupon, translator's behavior is the choice of passivity and initiative and is an interactive consequence of socialization and social nature.