A Study Of The Translation Of English Literature In China From1949to1966from The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in1949, the translation causeof China entered a new stage of development. In1966,“Great Cultural Revolution” waslaunched. In the following ten years, translation cause of China almost got into the stageof stagnation. The seventeen years from1949to1966witnessed neither translationbooms nor translation depression. Maybe not being extremely special is right the reasonwhy Chinese literary history and Chinese literary translation history have not givenenough attention to the translation of this period.Polysytem theory was first put forward by Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar in the1970s, provoking great repercussion in western academic circles. Some westernscholars, including Toury, Chesterman, Hermans and Lefevere, formulated their ideasand theories on the basis of Even-Zohar’s theory, and promoted the development ofpolysystem theory at the same time. This thesis mainly uses Even-Zohar’s view on theposition of translated literature within the literary polysytem, and Gideon Toury’sclassification of the three kinds of translation norms, and is able to reach a deeperunderstanding of the English literary translation during this specific period.The thesis analyses the position of translated English literature, which is a part ofChinese translated literature, within the Chinese literary polysystem by applyingEven-Zohar’s polysystem theory. In the seventeen years since the founding of the PRC,the position of translated literature was determined by the grade of maturity of Chineseliterature of that period. The thesis combines the idea of Hu Shi in his book History ofVernacular Literature with the actual state of development of Chinese vernacularliterature in the seventeen years after1949, reaching the conclusion that Chineseliterature was quite mature during that period. Therefore, it is further concluded thattranslated literature during the seventeen years, including translated English literature,possesses a peripheral position within the Chinese literary polysystem.According to Even-Zohar, position of translated literature within the literary polysystem in certain historical period has consequences on translation norms of thatperiod. The thesis studies the translation norms governing the translation of Englishliterature during the seventeen years since1949. The approach of descriptive studies isapplied, and the translation norms here refer to the three kinds of translation normsclassified by Gideon Toury: preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms.Generally speaking, preliminary norms of this period are political-oriented; initialnorms actually determine which of the two translation strategies (domestication orforeignization) will be followed in the translation; and operational norms are a series ofspecific translation skills guided by initial norms. The thesis studies the representativetranslation work of English literature of this period, The Gadfly, and reaches theconclusion that the initial norm of this period is acceptability-oriented, and theoperational norms also serve for the end of making the translation acceptable to Chinesereaders of the time.