A Study Of Zhou Shoujuan’s Translation

As one of the early literary schools in modern Chinese literature history,"Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" had long been left in the marginal position in modern Chinese literature research. Therefore, the contributions made by Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School to progress of modern Chinese translation and literature are often neglected. Zhou Shoujuan, as one of the representatives of the school, was a prominent translator, writer and editor in the late Qing dynasty and the early Republic of China. He had translated a great many foreign fictions when he was creating his literary works in the early Republic of China. For this reason, he made much contribution to both Chinese literature and translation.In recent years, more and more researchers have studied Zhou Shoujuan’s translation, but so far, no systemic and all-round research on his translation has been conducted. So there is still much room to probe into Zhou Shoujuan’s translation, such as his translated works and translation theories.The thesis tries to study Zhou Shoujuan’s translation activities in two periods—the period of beginning and development and the period of maturity, as well as his translation strategies, styles and linguistic features. Moreover, according to Andre Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory, the thesis will examine the ideological and poetological manipulation in his translated texts, taking Zhou’s translated work Anthology of Famous European and American Short Stories as an example, in order to reconsider and evaluate the value of Zhou Shoujuan’s translated works from a new perspective and contribute some findings to the study of Chinese translation history. In the end, the thesis will comment on Zhou Shoujuan’s contribution to translation. Firstly, he succeeded in achieving transformation from traditional translation concept to modern translation concept. Secondly, the themes and language styles in Zhou’s translation were quite close to the reality of Chinese people. Finally, he could combine free translation with literary translation quite well in his translated works.