A Study Of The Paratexts In The Chinese Full-text Translations Of Robinson Crusoe From The Perspective Of Toury’s Translational Norms

Robinson Crusoe,the masterpiece written by English writer Daniel Defoe,was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction in 18th century.According to incomplete survey,Robinson Crusoe was first introduced to China in 1902,and there have been over 400 Chinese translations of Robinson Crusoe in mainland China till 2013.Since its introduction to China,Robinson Crusoe has aroused great concern from various fields.Studies on the novel and its Chinese translations have been carried out from the perspectives of textual-linguistics,post-Colonism,rewriting theory and so forth.It is a pity that the paratexts of the Chinese translations of Robinson Crusoe have not yet been penetratingly explored,even if some paratextual elements,like translators’ comments and prefaces,have been alluded to.Paratexts are most important vehicle with regard to the translated work,the translation behavior and historical context.Systematic analysis on them contributes to the translation studies of Robinson Crusoe in depth,and helps unveil its textual,historical and literary value.This thesis examines the paratexts of twenty-four Chinese full-text translations of Robinson Crusoe,making systematic analysis on each paratextual element,so as to reconstruct and to evaluate the mainstream translational norms in different times.The collected translations have been categorized into three phases according to the conventional division of Chinese translation history.Diachronically,the Chinese translations of Robinson Crusoe take on a trend from acceptance to adequacy:they complied with the mainstream translational norms with the times,and fulfilled the Chinese readers’ expectations in the largest extent,therefore explain its flourishment in China for over a century.Its preliminary norms include the policy and directness of translation.On the basis of the paratextual elements like the historical background,social ideology,poetics,translator’s idiosyncrasies,the author summarizes their translation policy as to save the country,to import advanced education and to respect the original novel respectively.Among the twenty-four complete translations,Lin Shu’s version stands as indirect translation with the interpretation of Zeng Zonggong the collaborator,while the other twenty-three are all direct translations from the source text.Operational norms involve metrical norms and textual norms.In view of the Cataloguing in Publication statistics in the Chinese full-length translations of Robinson Crusoe,this thesis locates a mistake in the number of characters in Li Zhi and Ai Wen’s translation in 2005.Besides,the additions of footnotes and endnotes are in a normally progressive state through three phases for over a century,showing the translators’ conscious concern to the original novel.In the third place,the additions of and differences in the table of contents indicate possible omissions in the content,but the falseness of Chinese full-text translations needs thorough supporting details from the translated text.Since the examination of the translated text is out of the research scope of paratexts,further study is expected to verify it.