A Study On Norms Of Chinese Translation Of Foreign Contemporary Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Toury’s Translational Norms Theory

As economy, policy, culture and society develops, people pay more and more attention to the healthy growth of children in which children’s literature plays an indispensible role. With the development of globalization, a large amount of foreign works of children’s literature are introduced into China. However, the development of children’s literature translation is not in balance in theory and practice. The related theoretical research is far from adequate, especially in China. And most of the studies conducted by Chinese scholars only concentrate on the language usage of translated text without concerning about the cultural factors.In 1980 s, Gideon Toury puts forward translational norms theory. He claims that translation is a norm-governed activity and the translator is constrained by three kinds of norms –– preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms –– during his/her translation process. Preliminary norms influence the translation policy and the directness of translation; initial norms determine the overall tendency of the translation and concern about the question whether it is towards acceptability or adequacy; and operational norms constrain the actual decisions made in the translation process. Translators in different socio-culture context produce different translations of the same source text by adherence to different translational norms. It suggests that the translated texts should be regarded as “cultural facts” and studied in the cultural context of the target language. In the study of translational norms, the researchers should take the target culture into consideration and then reconstruct the norms abided by the translator based on his/her decision-making which is reflected in the translated text.In this thesis, the author aims to make an exploration on Chinese translation of foreign contemporary children’s literature from the perspective of Toury’s translational norms theory. A case study is conducted with C. S. Lewis’ s The Magician’s Nephew selected as the representative. The author compares its two Chinese translation versions in terms of translational norms in order to figure out the universal laws appropriate to children’s literature translation. One Chinese version is translated by Mi Youmei and published by Yilin Press in China Mainland; the other is translated by Peng Chien-wen and published by Titan Press of Taiwan. Through the analysis, the author is trying to answer the following questions.(1) What are the similarities and differences of the translational norms reconstructed from the two Chinese versions of The Magician’s Nephew?(2) What is the implication of this research for Chinese translation of foreign contemporary children’s literature?The author reconstructs the preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms behind the two Chinese versions in a descriptive method instead of prescriptive way, and then compares the similarities and differences between the two translations from the aspect of translational norms.The preliminary norms followed by the two translators are reconstructed from the angle of translation policy and the directness of translation. Translation policy is reflected in three aspects: selection of source text, layout of the translated texts and market-positioning of the Press. Through the analysis, we can find that Mi and Yilin Press hold a similar view with Peng and Titan Press on the selection of source text and the attitudes towards directness of translation. When introducing children’s literature, the Presses consider the work’s classicality and popularity, and the target culture’s demands. Meanwhile, both translation circles of China Mainland and Taiwan prefer the direct translation from the ultimate source language instead of an existing translation in another language. As for layout and market-positioning, these two translations are different from each other. Mi’s translation is published in horizontal mode with simplified Chinese used, aiming to draw the attention of pupils; while Peng’s in vertical writing way with traditional Chinese applied, directing at the students in the higher grades of elementary school and above. The difference in layout is caused by the different social, historical and cultural background between China Mainland and Taiwan. The socio-culture influences the formation of translation policy and then affects translational norms.Initial norms are reconstructed from both macro- and micro-level. In the macro-level, Mi and Peng keep the overall structure of translated texts stay the same with source text and remain the dashes employed in the source text rather than adopt the punctuations used to be applied in the target language system. The two translations both subscribe to the norms of source language and culture and hence are categorized into adequate translation. In the micro-level, the study is carried out on the translation of character names, place names and other common words involving the cultural differences. A conclusion is drawn that Mi’s translation is consistent with the overall tendency despite of some words and sentences translated in accordance with the norms of the receiving culture whereas Peng’s version shifts from the norms of source text and adheres to norms of target culture. On the whole, Mi’s translation tends to be more adequate; Peng’s more acceptable. In the actual translation, both translators combine the adequate translation and acceptable translation, and adopt the strategies of foreignization and domestication together to achieve the best effect. In this way, children can not only learn more western culture but also have a better understanding.Operational norms are distinguished as matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms. Matricial norms determine the macro-structure of the text. In the translation process, both Mi and Peng adopt translation strategies of addition and omission. Addition is often used for the amplification of footnotes. And omission commonly occurs when the content is not important to the main idea of the story or involves cultural differences. Textual-linguistic norms govern the selection of material to formulate the target text. In the word level, a lot of onomatopoeias, reduplicated words and Chinese four-character phrases are used. In the sentence level, both translators reorganize the long sentences into short sentences or clauses and translate the rhetorical sentences as well as possible in order to stimulate children’s reading interests and help them to learn the language usage and improve the language skills. In the actual translation, the two translators consider the psychological cognition characteristics of children, apply various translation strategies and give full play to their subjectivity and creativity. It can be seen that operational norms are influenced by both source culture and target culture, and related closely to the characteristics of target readers.The translational norms influence the translator and his/her decision-making process through the target culture’s constraints on the translator and the Press. Translational norms are formed in the social culture through which translators are constrained. The universal laws about the introduction and translation of foreign children’s literature are concluded from the analysis.1) The Presses and translators should take the tastes and interests of young kids into account and consider the target cultural factors during the process of selecting children’s literature for translation. The literature works should not only attract the children but also comply with the limits and requirements of the target culture.2) The translators should combine adequate translation and acceptable translation, and adopt foreignization and domestication together. It can not only keep the exoticism but also make children accept the work more easily. Acceptable translation enables children to have a better understanding of the literature; while adequate translation helps children learn more foreign culture.3) The translators should properly adopt addition and omission when the text involves the culture-loaded words, cultural vacancy and cultural differences. The annotations can be added to promote target readers’ understanding. And omission should be properly used in the premise of not influencing the content integrity.4) Words like onomatopoeias, reduplicated words and Chinese four-character phrases should be widely used in the translation. For these words can stimulate children’s interests and make them have fun.5) Long sentences should be reorganized into short sentences since young readers may be depressed and then quit reading, and the rhetoric should be well treated to achieve the same effect with the source text. Rhetorical sentences can describe things more vividly which cater to the psychology of the young children.In this thesis, the author reconstructs the translational norms behind the two Chinese versions of The Magician’s Nephew from the perspective of Toury’s translational norms theory. And this study is of great significance both in theory and practice. Theoretically, it proves the guidance significance of translational norms theory on the children’s literature translation. Practically, the universal laws appropriate to children’ literature translation are discovered with the aim to produce the excellent translated works which could help to widen children’s horizon of knowledge, deepen their understanding of the world and cultivate the consciousness of cross-cultural communication at an early age.