Ideological Manipulation In Lao She’s Translating The Apple Cart

Holding the view that translation is manipulated by ideology, this thesis studies how ideology affected Lao She’s translation of The Apple Cart within the framework of Andre Lefevere’s theory of "rewriting." By locating Lao She’s rendition of The Apple Cart in the translation environment of the1950s, the thesis closely examines the ideological manipulation of Lao She’s translation against the English source text from three different perspectives, i.e., national ideology, translators’ideology and cultural ideology. The textual world of the target text is explored in an analysis of Lao She’s translating of The Apple Cart. The findings show that Lao She’s choice of Benard Shaw’s political satire The Apple Cart for translation mainly because it conformed to China’s national ideology at that time. Translation is the reconstruction of the original texts in the social and cultural context of target language. Translation is the product of ideology and in turn has an effect on ideology. Lao She made some special changes within his capacity to keep the style of the original text. He retained some westernized sentences and added a few language elements of Beijing style, which reflects the "collision" between two languages under the influence of various ideologies. In the thesis, socio-cultural explanations will be offered for the shape which the translated text has taken, and for the translation strategy and TT style that Lao She had selected for undertaking the project.