Study On Shapiro’s Translation Of Shui Hu Zhuan From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

Shui Hu Zhuan, one of the four famous classical full-length novels in china, was regarded as an encyclopedia which reflected the lives of all classes in the ancient Chinese feudalistic society. It received worldwide welcome for its vivid figures, interesting story and unique writing style. Nowadays, it has been translated into various kinds of languages such as English, French, German, Russian and Japanese and launched all over the world. Among those translation versions, Sidney Shapiro’s translation of Shui Hu Zhuan which had published by Beijing Foreign Languages Press in1980received relatively high remarks. According to the author’s current data, the traditional translation researches upon Shapiro’s translation of Shui Hu Zhuan were conducted from many angles such as Semiotics, Manipulation Theory, Skopos Theory and Hybridity Theory. Seldom had the scholars studied Sidney Shapiro and his translation of Shui Hu Zhuan from the perspective of Eco-translatology. Based on the key concepts of Eco-translatology, the thesis aims to explore Shapiro’s translation processes from a fresh angle and further proves the explanatory power and feasibility of Eco-translatology.Eco-translatology came into being in21st century. It has been discussed firstly by foreign scholars and then introduced into China and further developed into a translation study system by Chinese scholar. In2004, Professor Hu Gengshen introduced the concepts "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" in Darwism to translation study and brought up the idea of translation as adaptation and selection. Based on the studies, he further developed the theory and came up with the Eco-translatology theory. He defined translation as a selection activity of translator’s adaptation to translational eco-environment. The translational eco-environment involves the source language system, the target language system, the source text, clients and the survival environment of both the translator and target text. According to Eco-translatology, translator plays a central role in the translation processes. The translator firstly adapts himself to the translational eco-environment of source text, and then selects target text on behalf of the translational eco-environment. That is, the translation activity is a process of continuous adaptations and selections.Therefore, the thesis will explore Sidney Shapiro and his translation version from two aspects:adaptations and selections. In the first stage, based on the theoretical explanatory power of Eco-translatology, the thesis makes a hypothesis that Eco-translatology is suitable to study Shapiro and his translation of Shui Hu Zhuan. In this section, the research focuses on the adaptations to translator’s external needs, internal needs and his competence. This part answers the question that why Shapiro translate Shui Hu Zhuan. In the second stage, the thesis concentrates on the translator’s selections in linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions by using methods like case study and text analysis. After exploring Shapiro’s multidimensional transformations in his translation, the thesis proves the empirical explanatory power. This section answers the question that how Shapiro translate Shui Hu Zhuan.The thesis composed of five chapters. Chapter one introduces the research background, purpose, significance, methodology and layout. Chapter two introduces the previous studies on Shui Hu Zhuan and Shapiro’s translation version as well as the applications of Ecotranslatology. Chapter three introduces the background of formulating Eco-translatology and its basic connotations such as translational eco-environment, adaptations, selections and three dimensional transformations. Chapter four serves as the most important part, focusing on Shapiro’s selective adaptations to translational eco-environment and Shapiro’s adaptive selections of target text. Chapter five is the conclusion, summarizing the findings, limitations and further research suppositions. The thesis provides a new perspective to study Shapiro and his translation version and proves the feasibility of Eco-translatology in studying saga novel with distinctive feature of "Zhang Hui" in classic literature.