On The Fiction Translation Of China's Third Translation Climax From The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

Traditional translation theories focus on the source texts and take translation as a transcoding activity. Since the"Cultural Turn"in the 1970s, the focus of translation studies has shifted from linguistic studies to extra-linguistic studies, which indicates that translation is far from a transcoding activity, and many other factors are also involved in the process of translation such as social-cultural context, history and ideology in the target language.Even-Zohar's polysystem theory made great contribution to cultural turn and provide a new approach to translation studies. Even-Zohar illustrated the translation literature's position in the target literary polysystem. Based on the polysystem theory, Toury propounded descriptive translation studies, and assumed translation is a cross-culture activity. Lefevere's rewriting theory was developed from the polysystem theory; he explains the translation decisions governed by the patrons, ideology and poetics in the target history and culture context.In this thesis, the author applies these theories to study the fiction translation in the third translation climax in China. The fiction translation in this thesis is chronologized into two phases. The first phase stretches from 1898 to 1911; the second phase is from 1911 to 1919. The author try to analyze historical background and ideology and other dominant factors governed the choice of original text and translation strategy. Then explore the position and influence of translation fiction in the literary polysystem.The thesis consists of six parts. Introduction is about the research background and significance. Chapter one introduces the polysystem theory and the further development of it. In chapter two, a general survey of translation fiction in this period was introduced including historical background, representative translators and different genres of fiction. Chapter three analyzes the reasons of different subjects and translation strategy in process of translation, and explores the position of translation fiction in the Chinese literary polysystem. Chapter four summarizes the influences of translation fiction on language, culture and creation of Chinese fiction. The last part is conclusion. The study of the translation fiction under the guidance of polysystem theory is a verification of polysystem theory and give us a fully cognition of translation history during that period.