A Study On The English Translation Of Brothers From The Perspective Of Toury's Translation Norms Theory

Yu Hua,one of the most famous modern writers in China,has had his works translated into more than 20 languages,and published in numerous countries and regions.His fourth novel Brothers,awarded the Prix Courrier International in 2008,is renowned for its grand narrative and controversial story.Since its first publication in China in 2005,Brothers has caused heated discussion among readers and scholars.Similarly,its English version,translated by Eileen Chow and Carlos Rojas,came out in the United States in 2009,also turned out to be a success,and immediately became the focus among English readers.This thesis is intended to conduct a descriptive study on the English translation of Brothers in the framework of Toury's translation norms theory,which consists of the initial norm,preliminary norms,and operational norms,hoping to find out the possible factors that could have influenced the concrete forming of the English version of Brothers.In this thesis,the author finds that the target culture has large impacts on the selection and forming of source text;Chow and Rojas are inclined to a neutral but more target-oriented approach to the text,and thus rendered a translation that meets both the target readers' and the writer's anticipation.The author also finds that to achieve a translation text agreeable to both sides,one has to take the target cultural environment into consideration and at the same time preserve the original features of the source text.