An Analysis Of Two Chinese Translations Of The Bluest Eye From The African-American Feminist Perspective

African-American feminism originated from the mid to late 19th century. It distinguishes itself from the traditional (white) feminism because it tackles not only gender issues, but also race issues. Living in double jeopardy, black women are faced with discrimination from both men and the white people. Under this background, studies on African-American feminist literatures and their Chinese translations are of great importance.Toni Morrison is the first African-American female Nobel Laureate. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, successfully depicts images and destinies of black women living under the pressure coming from both gender and race. The book demonstrated the African-American feminist consciousness of Toni Morrison.This thesis, from the African-American feminist perspective, compares two translated version of The Bluest Eye in terms of feminist translation theory and identity construction of black women. Apart from the author’s own observation and analysis, the current study also uses results from a survey that the author conducted. The two Chinese translators are Chen Sudong and Yang Xiangrong.The research finds out that in terms of feminist ideologies, Yang makes better use of feminist translation strategies that strengthen the feminist ideas conveyed in the book; in terms of identity construction of African-American women, Chen’s version omits many contents that could have helped strengthen black women’s identities, while Yang’s version is more faithful to the text, and images of African-American women are portrayed more lively. This study shows that elements of feminism and race can coexist properly in the Chinese version of African-American feminist works, and this result is a humble contribution to the translation studies.