A Study Of Dong Leshan’s Translation Style

With the “culture turn” in the1970s, the status of translators has been enhanced.Many great translators have stood out with their translation work being studied byresearchers and readers. It is a pity that Dong Leshan was absent among translatorsstudied systematically in the past. He was also a great contributor to the translationfield and admired by Chinese readers for his excellent translations of NineteenEighty-Four and George Orwell’s other works. In order to fill the blank of suchstudies, this thesis is intended to explore the phenomenon of style in translation,focusing on Dong Leshan’s translation style in his main work—NineteenEighty-Four—from a descriptive point of view.As it is known to all, Orwell’s political fable Nineteen Eighty-Four is a fiction ofgreat literary and social value. The analysis of such an anti-totalitarianism fiction’stranslations not only provides Chinese readers with better understanding of the bookbut also an opportunity to absorb knowledge of western political culture. Penetratingfrom extratextual and textual accesses, this thesis takes historical, political, andcultural factors that affected the formation of Dong’s translation thoughts as well asmulti-version comparison of Nineteen Eighty-Four into consideration so as to conducta tentative descriptive study of Dong Leshan’s translation style.This thesis follows the method of DTS through observation, description, andexplanation of four aspects which are translator’s selection of translation object,translation thoughts and strategies, word choice and sentence building, as well as“creative treason”. Taking—autonomy, initiative, purposiveness and creativity—fourfeatures of subjectivity as breakthrough point, it proceeds in function-oriented,product-oriented, and process-oriented analysis of Nineteen Eighty-Four examples,and tentatively describes Dong Leshan’s translation style.By doing so, the author hopes to prove Dong Leshan’s importance andcontributions to the translation field, and at the same time, arouse readers’ interests inDong Leshan’s translation career and draw their attention to Dong Leshan’stranslation style.