A Comparative Study Of Three English Versions Of The Husband From The Perspective Of Ideology And Patronage

In a narrow sense, traditional translation studies which mainly deal with word to word translation aim to translate the contents from the source language to the target language (Guo,1999:24). During the 1980s, western translation studies really transit from the study on discourse to the study on cultural, social, historical and political factors. According to Andre Lefevere (1944-1996), the most important thing of translation is not how words are matched on the page, but why they are matched in that way, and what social, literary, ideological considerations led translators to translate as they did (2004:87). Lefevere brings up in his rewriting theory three important factors:ideology, patronage and poetics. Ideology is not only confined to political field but also grillwork of form, conventions, and belief which order our actions (Jameson,1974:107). Patronage is "something like the powers (persons, institutions) that can further or hinder the reading, writing, and rewriting of literature." (Lefevere,1992:15)Shen Congwen(1902-1988) is a famous modern novelist and good at novels based on Xiangxi (West Hunan). He describes the beauty of countrymen and praises human nature. Most of his novels are the representatives of Chinese modern novels, among which his own favorite novel is The Husband. There exist three English versions, but the studies on them in the literary circle were still inadequate. The present thesis makes analysis of the different translation strategies of culture-bound expressions and then explains the reasons that influence the translation from the points of view of ideology and patronage.The article is composed of five parts:Chapter one introduces the background, significance and methodology as well as the framework of the thesis; Chapter two presents the literature review about the study of Lefevere’s rewriting theory and the English translations of Shen’s novels; Chapter three briefly introduces the three English versions, pointing out the ideology and patronage factors of each version; Chapter four analyzes the translation strategies of culture-bound expressions and explains the reasons from the perspectives of the ideological and patronage factors; Chapter 5 is the conclusion.It could be seen from the analysis that the three translators are influenced by different ideology and patronage. In the 1940s, UK readers showed little interest in Chinese modern works. In order to promote the selling, the patronage required the translators to adopt the corresponding translation strategies which could enhance the interest of the readers. Therefore the version of Ching Ti (1921-2008) sought to be brief, deleting some details of Chinese culture; In the 1980s, China has gone through the reform and opening up. The national officials wished that literature could realize the publicity and create the good external environment for Chinese development, therefore Panda Books emerged. Gladys Yang (1919-1999) chose The Husband out of her own interest. She tried her best to communicate the cultural details, but as a professional translator who took more consideration of the whole discourse, she does not consider too much about the trivial cultural detail as well; In the 1990s, many scholars developed strong interest in Chinese literature. As the first foreign scholar who studied Shen, Jeffrey C. Kinkley (1948-) tried his best to communicate every cultural detail to make the readers more familiar with Chinese culture under the support of his patronage.