A Study Of The English Translation Of Panghuang In Light Of Toury’s Translational Norms

Panghuang is one of the representative works of Lu Xun,has been translated into English by a number of translators or scholars in which the English version by Hsien-yi Yang and Gladys Yang is of great influence and more complete,and is well received in the western countries.This version was first published in the 1950 s or 1960 s and it is the best material for the study from a cultural perspective.In Toury’s translational norms,translation activities are restricted by translation norms,the translator is influenced by social,cultural and other external factors in varying degrees in the process of the translation.The norms include initial norms,preliminary norms and operational norms.Initial norms determine the translator’s overall tendency towards translation,which refer to the criterion in making choices between the translator’s subjection to source culture norms and target culture norms;preliminary norms are defined as the norms which affect translation policy and directness of the translation;operational norms dominate the practical choices during the process of the translation,including translation methods and skills used in the process of the translation.In this study,based on Toury’s translational norms,through analysis and comparison between the source text and the target text,the author describes and analyzes the translation strategies used by the translator in the process of the translation,the selection of the source text,the directness of the translation and the specific translation skills and methods.Moreover,the author discusses the embodiment and influence of initial norms,preliminary norms and operational norms in Toury’s translational norms in the process of translating Panghuang,and analyzes why the translator follows these norms.It is hoped that this study will shed light on the English translation of contemporary Chinese literature.