Translation Of Andersen's Fairy Tales In China During Its 100-year Course-From Polysystem Perspective

Andersen's fairy tales have journeyed in China for nearly 100 years. From separated translations to complete versions, they went across a "thorny road of honor" along with the development of Chinese children's literature, being caved by the historical-and-cultural context in the given times. To objectively recognize the significance of 100-year translation course of Andersen's fairy tales, a diachronic and descriptive survey is of great helpful by focusing on features, causes of formation and receptions of these various translated versions.The thesis divides the translation span of Andersen's fairy tales into four time segments. Framed by Even Zohar's polysystem theory and Gideon Toury's translation norms, the thesis executes a diachronic description on positions of translation of Andersen's fairy tales in the literary polysystem, the translation, reception and influence of translated versions, and translation norms in the given historical condition in each time segment. Besides the part of historical cognition, the study also intends to explore to what extent can polysystem theory offer explicable accounts for the translation of Andersen's fairy tales during its 100-year span. The thesis includes five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the thesis background, research questions and methods. Chapter Two is the literature review. It starts with the relationship between Chinese children's literature and children's literature translation, moves to an overview of translation of Andersen's fairy tales in its four different times, and put emphasis on the current research results and deficiencies of the translation of Andersen's fairy tales in China and polysystem theory respectively. Chapter Three concerns the theoretical background of Even Zohar's polysystem theory and Gideon Toury's three translation norms. From the analysis of the first three chapters, the author concludes that the translation activity of Andersen's tales in different times is affected deeply by its position hold in the given literary polysystem, cultural contexts, social factors and etc. Chapter Four conducts a diachronic survey on the translation of Andersen's fairy tales in China with close attention to major translators, the choice, position, reception and translation norms of translated versions in those four time spectrums. By analyzing these different features in the given times, the thesis arrives at a summary that the summit or bottom of the translation course of Andersen's fairy tales coincides mostly with its central or peripheral position in Chinese children's literary polysystem, which in turn drives the translation practice towards either adequacy or acceptability. Meanwhile, the position of translated Andersen's fairy tales along with various cultural and social factors is accountable for different features of these Chinese versions in terms of their selection, translation norms andreception. Thus, the author finds polysystem theory is strongly explicable for the 100-year transfer of the translation of Anders's fairy tales in China to a macro extent. Chapter Five is a conclusion in which the author reviews the thesis's main content and re-accent the research results. And the significance and shortcomings of the study are covered finally.