A Comparative Study Of The Representation Of Feminine Consciousness In Two Translation Versions Of Moment In Peking

Moment in Peking is the representative literary work of Lin Yutang. The novelhas made a great success in shaping many different female characters and it gives highcompliment to women·s capability. Besides, it also criticizes the patriarchalsuppression and women and encourages women to break the restrictions of feudaltraditions, which gives an obvious reflection of feminine consciousness.In the theoretical framework of feminist translation criticism, this thesis makes atentative study on the two Chinese versions of Moment in Peking which arerespectively translated by Zhang Zhenyu and Yu Fei. By making a comparativeanalysis from three aspects, namely the criticism on patriarchy, description o ffeminine experience and depiction of female images, the author tries to find whetherthe two translations have fully represented the feminine consciousness in the sourcetext. It is discovered through the analysis that, though the two translators are nottypical feminists, their translations have still, more or less, represented the feminineconsciousness of the original text through faithful translation. Moreover, comparedwith the translation of Zhang Zhenyu, Yu Fei·s translation has highlighted thecriticism on patriarchy and given prominence to female images, and thereforerepresents more of the feminine consciousness of the original text than the former.Although Zhang has also given a vivid translation of the novel, Yu·s version isconsidered relatively more appropriate in the representation of feminineconsciousness.Through the comparative study, it is suggested that translators should payattention to translating the contents about the criticism on patriarchy, the descriptionof feminine experience and the prominence of women in the original text in order toachieve a direct and clear demonstration of feminine consciousness of the originaltext in the translation. Through the comparative study of the two translation versionsof Moment in Peking, the author attempts to provide some hint on how to demonstrateor highlight the feminine consciousness of the original text in translation and appealfor more attention to and study on feminist translation criticism.