The Manipulation In The Two Chinese Translation Versions Of David Copperfield

Based on Andre Lefevere’s manipulation theory, this thesis undertakes a comparative study among the two translating versions of David Copperfield, i.e. the1908version translated by Linshu and the1980version translated by Zhang Guruo, and the original version, with a view to finding out the influence of ideology, poetics and patronage in the target culture on the process of literary translation. For a further study on reasons for the appearance of different translating versions of the same literary work in the same target language, this thesis makes a qualitative and comparative study on different societies and cultural backgrounds the two translators were in, and the manipulation of ideologies, poetics and patronages on the two translating versions from a diachronic approach. It concludes that translation does not take place in a vacuum, and that different ideologies, poetics and patronages of different historical periods influence the translation activities and publication by manipulating the choice of original texts, the rewriting of ideological contents, style of works and such linguistic characteristics as the choice of words, sentence structures and narrative approach. It also reaches the conclusion that the degree of rewriting is closely related to the degree that ideology and poetics of the source language correspond to that of the target language. Adopting Lefevere’s manipulation theory to account for translation activities of translators in different periods, this thesis not only returns to the cultural approach of literary translation study by integrating language with culture, but will have certain reference value for future translation activities.