Ideological Manipulation In Translation

The ideological manipulation is not confined to the linguistic aspect of the translation.However,it turns to the research of the influence of the ideology on translation.In the light of this,instead of adopting linguistic approach,this thesis conducts a study on the translation of Zhongyong from the perspective of ideological manipulation.This thesis aims to study the three English versions of Zhongyong from the perspective of ideological manipulation,attempting to explore how ideology manipulates translators’translation motives,their choice of translation strategy,and their interpretation of the text.The study of the ideological manipulation in translation followed the cultural turn in translation studies.Since then,the focus of the translation studies shifted from linguistic aspect to cultural aspect,from the source text and the author to the translated text and the translator.In fact,all translations are conducted in a certain social background and power system.The representative of the Manipulation School,Andre Lefevere,announced that translation is a rewriting of an original text under the influence of three factors,namely ideology,poetics and patronage,among which the influence of the ideology is what we are going to discuss in this thesis.It is pointed out by the author that ideology has an impact on the translators’motive for translation,translation strategy and the way they deal with the problems concerning culture.This research is conducted in three steps with descriptive method and comparative method.Frist,this essay traces the social background of the three translators,from which their translation motive can be inferred.Second,the translation strategy is to be explored.Third,the detailed analysis of the translation of some key philosophical terms and the reasons behind these differences are to be presented.It is found that the differences between three translators concerning translation motives,translation strategy and the understanding and translation of key philosophical terms are resulted from their different ideology.As a missionary,James Legge translated Zhongyong with a strong sense of Christianity.His resort to the foreignizing strategy is aimed at seeking the similarity between Confucian classics and Christianity,thus bringing the Christianity to China and attempting to make it known to common people.Gu Hongming,as a Chinese scholar,adopted the domesticating strategy by citing the western philosophical terms to interpret the Chinese philosophical terms.However,his motives were hidden behind the native expressions.His catering for the reading hobby of readers was to carry out his mission of spreading Confucian culture and humanism during the period of chaos.Roger T.Ames and David Hall’s English version was published in 21^st century.Based on the analysis and criticism on the previous English versions,they employed a language of process to translate Zhongyong,aiming to clarify the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the westerners and promote the communication between China and the West.The combination of the foreignization and domestication makes their renderings easier to be accepted by target readers.By presenting the ideological manipulation in translation,it is expected that this essay can make a reasonable explanation of the translation phenomenon that is difficult to be interpreted by linguistic method as well as provide a new perspective for the study of the translation of Zhongyong.