A Comparative Study Of Two Translated Versions Of "The Catcher In The Rye" Based On Manipulation Theory

J.D.Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most representative and controversial novels and it was warmly welcomed by teenagers and young people once published.The influence of the novel has endured until today,with more than 60 million copies sold worldwide since its publication in 1951.Two most popular translation versions of this work in China are the one done by Shi Xianrong’s in 1963 and the other done by Sun Zhongxu in 2007,which are the ones I explored.In Translation,Rewriting,& the Manipulation of Literary Fame,Lefevere identifies three factors that influence and manipulate translation: ideology,poetics,and patronage.The poetics consists of inventory component and functional component.In terms of inventory part,various factors usually restrict poetics.As to the functional part,social system exerts great influence on poetics.In addition,ideology is closely linked with poetics.All these factors would consciously and unconsciously manipulate translators’ translating activity to some extent.Guided by the framework of manipulation theory,this paper mainly makes a comparative analysis both from micro and macro aspects of poetics,that is inventory component and functional part by means of comparative and quantitative method,to explore the differences between the two translation versions and investigate the causes contributing to such differences from three aspects: culture-unique words(like proper nouns and religious words),idiomatic expressions and profanities.It is concluded that literary translation is not merely a kind of transformational act between languages,but also a confrontation between cultures.Secondly,from the macro level,mainstream poetics and ideology of different societies do manipulate translator’s translation throughout the whole translating activity.Finally,from the micro level,through the study of lexicon level,it shows that the choice of different translation strategies leads to unique translation style of the two translators.