On Science Fiction Translation In The Light Of Rewriting Theory

Recently the value of futurism represented by American science fiction films hasprevailed in the world, which triggered science fiction translation in an inexhaustible passion.In the light of Lefevere’s rewriting theory, the thesis addressed the influence that ideologyand poetics might exert on the translating of The Invisible Man in terms of literariness,scientific knowledge and readability.We have figured that the nonidentity of language, culture as well as ideology and poeticsof different times manipulated rewriting of stylistics and characterization of the source text.Literature served for national ideology of socialism in the1950s. Thus, translations of sciencefiction were mostly selected from the Soviet Union, though a few Western realist works wereincluded as a reflection of the condemned capitalism. The tone of Zhang Hua’s version givesinsight to the political ideology of the time. While literature was liberated since1990s so thatpublishing houses and audience-oriented poetics of translation take the role of manipulationin rewriting. The three translators adopted different strategies in rewriting according to targetreaders such as supplementary explanation of physical principles, normalization of colloquialconversations, transformation of rhetorical devices and cultural references. In all, SunZonglu’s version is good at readability for children and teenagers in wording and narratingphysical principles. Huang Yuanshen tries to retain the conciseness but lost readability withthe goal of translation instruction. While Jia Min’s version is considered the most successfulone for it is easy to understand and preserves the literariness and scientific knowledge of thesource text.On the whole, it can be concluded that ideology is the main factor that manipulates thetranslation of science fiction in the peculiar historical background of1950s. While poetics oftranslation plays an important role of shaping science fiction translation since1990s. Whatstrategy translator adopts in accordance with ideology or poetics of translation may influenceliterariness, scientific knowledge and readability as well as translation’s language fluency.