On The Reception Of The Flowers Of War In The United States From The Perspective Of Bourdieu’s Sociological Theory

Translation is a social activity.In the past,many scholars attempted to place translation activities in a socio-cultural context,focusing not only on the translated text but also on the influence of socio-cultural factors beyond the text.Since the1990 s,many translation scholars have begun to introduce sociological theories into translation studies,among which the most cited is the sociological theory of the famous French sociologist Bourdieu.Bourdieu is one of the most distinguished sociologists in European sociological circles,who ignores disciplinary boundaries and dabbled in a number of fields such as anthropology,education,philosophy,linguistics and aesthetics,proposing a series of new concepts.Among them,field,capital and habitus are his core concepts,and many researchers draw on those concepts to study various translation activities.《金陵十三钗》(Jin Ling Shi San Chai,with the English version entitled The Flowers of War)is a modern literary novel written by Yan Geling.Published in 2011,the story tells about a church that shelters a group of schoolgirls and prostitutes during the Nanjing Massacre.Translated by the renowned sinologist Nicky Harman,or Han Bin(韩斌)as she calls herself in Chinese,the novel received great popularity among readers after its publication,and its movie of the same name also helped to raise even more attention.In this thesis,the author analyses the reception of The Flowers of War in the United States.By drawing on the three basic concepts in Bourdieu’s sociological theory:field,capital and habitus,the author examines the factors that influence the reception of the translation in terms of its translation field,the capital of the translation and the habitus of its translator.Under the guidance of Bourdieu’s sociological theory,this study reaches conclusions as follows: First,the translation field in which the English version is located is influenced by the literary field of the United States as well as the Chinese and American power fields,which helps to enhance the reception of the English version in the United States.Second,the publishers’ capital,cinematic capital and the translator’s capital possessed by the translation contribute to the reception of the English version in the United States.Third,the translator’s habitus and chosen translation methods not only make the translation more fluent but also keep it faithful to the original work,which improves the reception of the English version.With the help of Bourdieu’s sociological theory,the author explores more comprehensively the factors that have improved the reception of Chinese-English translations in the United States from both macro and micro perspectives,in the hope of shedding some light on Chinese literature going abroad.