A Study On Mao Dun’s Translation Of Lady Gregory’s Dramas From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Mao Dun(1896-1981),was a renowned writer,literary critic and drama translator in modern and contemporary China.He translated seven Irish dramas,including six by Lady Gregory,during the May Fourth New Culture Movement.He made significant contributions to the development of Chinese literature.Enlightened by this idea and based on Rewriting Theory,this paper explores the social ideology,patronage,and poetics factors in his drama translation to examine his promotion of translation,dissemination and reception.With the Rewriting Theory and its application as framework,this paper adopts the descriptive method,document analysis and quantitative and qualitative methods to answer three questions: 1)How does social ideology influence Mao Dun’s choices of themes in his translation? 2)How does the publishing patronage manipulate Mao Dun’s choices of texts in his translation? 3)How do Mao Dun’s translation thoughts manipulate his drama translation strategy?The paper concludes three research findings.From the perspective of ideology,Mao Dun’s translation themes are centered round problematic dramas of the underclass and patriotic dramas,concerning the necessity of opening people’s minds and spreading new literature.From the perspective of patronage,Mao Dun was influenced by the Commercial Press’ s patronage to choose Lady Gregory’s dramas for translation.From the perspective of poetics,Mao Dun’s translation strategy is Foreignization,using Europeanized vernacular and literal translation or annotation to accurately convey the original text’s meaning while enhancing the drama translation’s readability.