On Linguistic Norms Governing English Poetry Translation Of Critical Review

The beginning of the twentieth-century marked an exceptionally importantperiod as the New Cultural Movement was in full swing, with innumerabletranslations of Western books serving as the main carriers of Western culture. Thisperiod abounded in all kinds of thoughts and provided multiple cultural choices,however, influenced by grand narrative in history writing of translated literature inChina, investigations of translation activities by the Critical Review School has for along time been left marginal. Its contributions to modern translated literature alsosink into oblivion due to the objection to the main trends of the times. It is the firmbelief of the author that while the New Culture School was privileged as themainstream, the value of translations done by Critical Review members does notnecessarily have to be denied completely.Upon the recognition of defects underlying grand narrative, the present thesisventures into linguistic norms governing English poetry translation of CriticalReview and explores how and why these norms are constructed. Detailed micro-leveltext analysis focusing on English poems translated by Critical Review membersunfolds at lexical, syntactic and stylistic level to sketch norms governing selection oflinguistic materials. Investigation of related paratexts and metatexts at macro-levelplaces the translation activities of the Critical Review School in the specifichistorical and cultural context to uncover the approaches to and reasons for thereconstruction of linguistic norms. By combining micro-level text analysis withmacro-level historical and cultural context, this paper attempts to give expression tothe long obliterated other side of English poetry translation in China.In addition, existing researches of norms mostly revolve around how translated textsare regulated by norms or the construction of major translational norms duringcertain historical and cultural period, and few efforts are made to describe normsgoverning certain groups of people, let alone groups that negate dominant norms. With regard to this, the present thesis constitutes a tentative attempt to fill in theblank of domestic studies on minor translational norms under the critical context ofNew Cultural Movement. It is hence expected that its objective demonstration oflinguistic norms behind the specific group of translators with Critical Review canshed light on another sight in the shade, namely, the construction of minortranslational norms.