A Study On Wu Mi’s Translation Thoughts

A time of radical transformation in the history of Chinese culture, the May Forth period witnessed different cultural groups operating either for or against the mainstream ideology and poetics. Due to its conservatism during that time period, The Critical Review (Xueheng) has been long marginalized in cultural and historical research, and the efforts made in translation have thus been neglected in the study of translation history. In the emergent reexamination of the historical significance of the New Culture Movement, Wu Mi, as an editor in chief for the magazine and one of the forerunning opponent representatives to the New Culture advocates, has been receiving increasing attention. While constant inquiries are made into his cultural and literary views, study of his translation thoughts still lags far behind.This thesis makes an attempt to explore Wu Mi’s views upon translation through a description within the system of The Critical Review, and further takes his translation of fictions as a case study. It historically contextualizes his translation thoughts by relating with such conditioning factors as ideology, poetics, etc.. The Critical School’s aim of integrating Chinese and Western culture in introducing Western material could be demonstrated by Wu Mi’s selection of the foreign subjects, the approach of “putting new material into old forms” and his creation in translation. And taking his translation of Thackeray’s novels as a case study, the thesis further examines his translation practices in keeping the original meaning clear, adopting free translation method, following traditional fictional patterns, preferring Chinese classical language and employing notation.By looking at the cultural factors conditioning Wu Mi’s translation thoughts as well as practices, the thesis aims to reveal the function and role of the translator’s operation within the cultural subsystem and further stresses upon the need of uncovering complexity and difference in translation history.