A Study On Dong Leshan’s Translation Of Red Star Over China From The Perspective Of Translation As Adaptation And Selection

The “cultural turn” in translation studies,formulated in 1970 s, not only has brought new approaches and dimensions to the translation studies, but also has initiated a systematic research of translator-oriented approach in the 1980 s. From then on, scholars have commenced on focusing on the research of the subjectivity of the translator.In China, many scholars also have started to pay due attention to the translator’s importance in the translation. A lot of translation theories about translator’s role in the process of translation have come into being. The Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection proposed by Hu Gengshen is a famous and systematic one, which provides a new and comprehensive way to study the translator’s function in the process of translation from the prospective of translator’s adaptation and selection in the translation eco-environment and a new angle to evaluate the translation from the perspective of the degree of holistic adaptation and selection.As a newly developed translation theory, the Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection with the philosophical origin of Darwin’s evolution theory, uses the concept of “adaptation and selection” as its core to explore translators’ “selective adaptation” and “adaptive selection” in the translation process. On the basis of the essential concept of “survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” of Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection, the translator must attach due importance on his/her subjectivity to make proper adaptive selection and selective adaptation in the different stage of the translation process so that the translation can have a high degree of holistic adaptation and selection and adapt to the translational eco-environment.This thesis intends to study Dong Leshan’s Chinese version of Red Star over China from the perspective of Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection with the view to explore the concrete adaptations and selections in Translational Eco-environment. On the basis of the Adaptations and selections analysis, this thesis manages to evaluate the degree of holistic adaptation and selection of Dong Leshan’s translation of Red Star over China.First of all, the thesis discusses the translational eco-environment in which the concrete adaptations and selections was made and analyzes Dong Leshan’s adaptation in the first stage of the translation process in order to study how he adapts to the translational eco-environment from the aspects of his needs and competence. Then, the selection in the translational Eco-environment has been analytically presented from linguistic, cultural and communicative dimension. Last but not the least, this thesis tries to evaluate Dong Leshan’s translation of Red Star over China on the basis of the translation criteria of the Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection.In one word, owing to Dong Leshan’s proper adaptation and selection in the different stages of the translation process, Dong Leshan’s translation of Red Star over China is a successful translation with high degree of holistic adaptation and selection, which is warmly welcomed by the target readers and has a great influence on the Chinese readers. Besides, this thesis has demonstrated that the Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection is a powerful tool to explain concrete translation phenomena and activities.