On Herbert Giles’ Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation Theory

There were many similarities between translation and feminism. Translation has long been seen as a derived, dependent and unreal imitation, so it is sort of feminine. In history, translation is devalued like women. Women and translation long suffered the repressed and belittled fate, and were thus unconsciously made to get together.Liaozhai Zhiyi represents the peak of Chinese classical novel. Because of its profound ideological value and artistic charm, it is highly favored by readers both at home and abroad, and enjoys high reputation. It was translated into many foreign languages, and is the most translated Chinese classical novel. The British Sinologist Herbert A. Giles’Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio is the earliest, the most complete and characteristic one. Many scholars made a lot of constructive study on the different English versions of Liaozhai Zhiyi from various perspectives, but few studied it from the perspective of feminist translation theory.In this research, the author mainly takes a descriptive approach from the perspective of feminist translation theory, which is rooted in the application of theoretical defining and analyzing as well as Liaozhai Zhiyi’s translation, so as to promote the understanding of Giles’ initiative, passivity as well as his specific strategies manifested in the English translation of Liaozhai Zhiyi. The author of this thesis tries to make an analysis on Giles’ Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio from the perspective of feminist translation theory, which classifies translation strategies into three categories:supplementing, prefacing and footnoting, and highjacking. Examples from Giles’ Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio will be selected to analyze the translation strategies Giles adopted in his translation from the above-mentioned three categories, and by analyzing the strategies, the author aims to explore Giles’originality in his process of translation.It is hoped that this study will be of some help in better understanding both Liaozhai Zhiyi and Giles’English version. The selection of feminist translation theory enriches the study of this perspective in practice, meanwhile encourages more scholars to concern and study this Chinese classical work. Moreover, because Liaozhai Zhiyi is an important Chinese classical novel, the study of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and Giles’ English version may shed light on promoting the exchange of Chinese culture and Western culture to some extent.