Women,Time,and Space;a Feminist Analysis Into The English Translation Of Wang Anyl’s Chang Hen Ge

As one of China’s most renowned female writers, Wang Anyi has unique insights into gender relations and women’s situation in China. Her classic novel Chang Hen Ge tells the life story and tragic fate of a Shanghai woman and reflects Wang’s feminist thinking. Two other key elements:time and space also interact closely with the feminist theme. Through this interaction, the novel both criticizes the oppression of women under patriarchy and demonstrates female agency. This dissertation studies whether the English translators agree with Wang’s feminist views when dealing with the relationship between women, time, and space, and what feminist translation strategies they adopted to strengthen the female voice. Chapter1introduces the author, the translators, and the success of both Chang Hen Ge and its English translation. It then brings up the novel’s feminist theme and its relationship with time and space. Chapter2reviews major academic works on the author, the original novel, and the translation. Chapter3presents the theoretical framework of this dissertation:Feminism and Feminist Translation. Chapter4provides a feminist analysis into the translation of women’s relationship with each layer of time and space. Chapter5reviews examples from the previous chapter in light of Flotow’s three feminist translation strategies, and demonstrates the strategies’ discontents. Chapter6concludes that the translators agree with the author’s distinctive feminist views, and adopted the strategies of supplementing and hijacking to criticize patriarchy and strengthen the female voice, but there are weaknesses in the translation of the book title and the feminist aesthetics of the original novel.