An Analysis Of Eileen Chang’s Self-translation From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

This thesis mainly applies Andre Lefevere’s Rewriting Theory to make anintensive study on Eileen Chang’s self-translated works.Eileen Chang (1920-1995)，as one of the most important and talented femalewriters in contemporary literature history of China, won affection from readers andcritics and has deep influence by her unique writing achievements. Because she hasexploited many sectors and established her own distinctive features in the world ofliterature, she is regarded as a unique individual in contemporary literature history ofChina. Researches on her have gradually come into a special wave. In recent years,with a large number of Eileen Chang’s works made into films and TV series, such asLust Caution and Love in a Fallen City, academic researches on her are increasinglyintensive and broad.However, these academic researches are mostly confined to her literaryproduction like novels and essays, which leads to the neglect of her gift in literaturetranslation. In fact, Eileen Chang has not only translated a large number of novels,essays, poems, but also self-translated and re-wrote some of her own works. Out ofher cherish for her own works, she refused others’ request to translate her works butself-translated part of them. Due to so many mishaps she experienced during herwhole life and the great impact of so many complicated social environmental factorson her works, Eileen Chang’s translation is of great research value. At the same time,Chang’s large number of self-translated works，her long term of self-translated careeras well as the subtle difference in her self-translation in different time make herself-translation a typical example for research.Different from traditional translation study theories which prefer languageanalysis and the comparison between source text and target text, Lefevere’s RewritingTheory lays stress on such issues as interactions between translation and culture,cultural fields and their ways of restricting translation, context, history and tradition. The central part of this thesis mainly does a case study on Eileen Chang’sself-translated works from the perspective of Rewriting Theory’s three manipulatingparameters—ideology, poetics and patronage, exploring their manipulating functionsin the course of Eileen Chang’s self-translation. The author hopes that this researchcan make some contribution to literature research and Eileen Chang research.