A Study Of Shapiro’s Nickname Translation In Shui Hu Zhuan From Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Nickname is another title added to name. Usually, nickname is given according to one’s characteristics and the living environment used in informal conditions. As an expressive art in literary creation, nickname is vivid with profound social connotation and cultural significance. Shui Hu Zhuan is regarded as one of China’s most precious literary treasures with a reflection of Chinese classical culture and enjoys a high reputation both at home and abroad. Nickname play a crucial role in shaping characters’ personality in Shui Hu Zhuan. Sidney Shapiro’s Outlaws of Marsh has a high literary achievement and research value since its publication.Scholars mainly focused on the features, criteria, techniques, translatability and untranslatability, or theories on linguistic level about translation before 1970 s From1990s, Andre Lefevere, as a representative of the Manipulation Theory, started to research translation studies from the point of culture. He summarized that ideology, poetics and patronage are the three key factors which manipulate literary translation. From his perspective, translation is not done in vacuum but a production of culture and society affected by ideology and poetics, in which ideology is the most important factor.With the guidance of the Manipulation Theory, this thesis attempts to collect 108 nicknames in Shui Hu Zhuan as the corpus, and divided them into 5 types including title, appearance, skill, ecology and action. With the combination of empirical research and theoretical interpretation, five kinds of translations methods used in Shapiro’s version are analyzed. Besides, how ideology manipulates the nickname translation strategies is explored. The conclusion is that nicknames translation in Shapiro’s version is manipulated by social ideology and translator’s own ideology, and foreignization is used as the main translation strategy.The thesis mainly consists of six chapters. Chapter One provides the research background, purpose and significance, and the structure of the thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review of the previous studies on the domain of Shui Hu Zhuan and nickname translation. Chapter Three is a presentation to the origin and development of Manipulation Theory. Chapter Four is research questions, research methodology, data collection and data analysis. Chapter Five is the analysis of Shapiro’s nickname translation in Shui Hu Zhuan from perspective of ideological manipulation based on the former chapter’s data. Chapter Six summarizes the present findings, limitations and suggestions while research prospect are also put forward.