（英语语言文学专业论文）戴乃迭的文化身份及其汉英翻译.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 摘 要 摘 要 英籍翻译家戴乃迭是最早开始从事汉英翻译的少数当代翻译家之一。国内外对她的 汉英译本有很多的论述，但将戴乃迭的个人背景、翻译的社会语境与其翻译活动联系起 来进行系统的探讨仍处于起步阶段。本文试图运用文化身份和多元系统理论，结合戴乃 迭的个人经历和生活的社会语境运用描述翻译方法对其翻译作品进行系统的研究， 并以 此分析她的文化身份与汉英翻译策略的关系。 多元系统理论和描述翻译规范为译者的文化身份研究提供了理论支持。佐哈尔认 为：翻译活动实际上是由译语文化里的各个系统所决定，翻译文本的选择取决于译语文 化的特定需要，翻译方式和翻译策略也取决于译语文化里的某些准则。图瑞认为：如果 译者坚持原文准则,译文就会充分表现原文内容;而遵循译语文化中的准则,译文在译语 文化中将被顺利接受，他因此提出了“充分与接受之对峙”的问题。但是戴乃迭的汉英 翻译在译文的充分性和可接受性之间达到了一种平衡， 这说明翻译不仅受目的语规范制 约，还要受到译者所处的社会语境和在这种社会语境下形成的文化身份的影响。 霍尔认为文化身份可以定义为一种共有的文化，它既是“存在”又是“变化”的问 题，屈从于历史、文化和权力的不断“嬉戏” 。由于深受西方文化的浸染和东方传统文 化的熏陶，戴乃迭的文化身份不可避免的带有混杂性。她对中国文化的认同体现在她尽 量充分传递中国文化；她对西方文化的认同表现在她尽可能满足译文的可接受性。 本文首先介绍了文化身份和混杂文化身份的概念，然后从戴乃迭的个人经历、主要 的翻译活动以及中西文化的影响三个角度探讨了戴乃迭混杂文化身份的形成； 从选取源 语文本和再现源语文化的翻译策略两方面考察戴乃迭的混杂文化身份在汉英翻译中的 表现。经过分析文章认为：在对中西两种文化的认同中戴乃迭对中国文化的认同超出了 她对西方文化的认同，因此她在从事汉英翻译时是站在中国的文化立场为中国输出文 化，而不是站在西方的立场引进中国文化。 关键词：戴乃迭；文化身份；充分性；可接受性；汉英翻译 abstract ii abstract gladys yang, a british translator, is one of the first few translators who translated chinese into english. a lot of comments on her translation can be found in china and abroad. there is a lack of systematic study on either her translation activities or her personal backgrounds and the social context as far as the author knows. in the hope of bridging the gap, the author intends to conduct a descriptive study on gladys yangs life experience, the social context she worked in and her c-e translation so as to analyze the manifestation of her cultural identity. employing cultural identity and polysystem theory from the social cultural point of view，this thesis will summarize tentatively the relationship between her translation strategies and her cultural identity, and discuss how she was able to achieve a balance between adequacy of the translation and acceptability of the tt in c-e translation. polysystem theory and descriptive translation studies offer theoretical support for the study of translators cultural identity. according to polysystem theory, translation activity is determined by the systems in the target culture. the translators choice of source text and translation strategies unavoidably depends on the specific demands or norms in the target culture. toury holds that translators can subject themselves to the norms realized in the st or to the norms of the target culture or language. if it is towards the st, then the tt will be adequate; if the target culture norms prevail, then the tt will be acceptable. toury puts forward the confrontation of adequacy and acceptability. but gladyss c-e translation achieves a balance between adequacy and acceptability, which shows that translation studies should not only focus on the texts of translation but also the context of translation as well as the translators cultural identity formed in the intellectual, political, social, economic, ideological, or historical circumstances. according to hall, cultural identity can be defined as one shared culture, and it is “a matter of becoming as well as of being.” it subjects to the play of history, culture and power. rooted in western culture and deeply influenced by chinese traditional culture, gladys is inevitably of hybrid cultural identity. her efforts to convey chinese culture to english adequately exhibit her identification with chinese culture; her consideration to make the translation acceptable to the west manifests her identification with the western culture. the thesis first introduces the definitions of cultural identity and hybrid cultural identity, then analyzes cultural identity from the perspective of the translator, which mainly includes her/his national identity, the period s/he lives in, educational background and her/his research field. it abstract iii expounds gladyss cultural identity from her source texts selection and her translation strategies in re-representing chinese culture. at last, the thesis comes to the conclusion that gladyss identification with chinese culture surpasses that with western culture, so when gladys was translating chinese literature into english, she was in the position of helping china output literature to the english society rather than input chinese literature for english society. key words: gladys; cultural identity; adequacy; acceptability; chinese-english translation list of abbreviations list of abbreviations c-e chinese-english dts descriptive translation studies tt target text tl target language st source text sl source language 湘湘 潭潭 大大 学学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的研 究成果。除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其它个人或集 体已经发表或撰写的成果作品。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已 在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，同意学校保留 并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文被查阅和借阅。 本人授权湘潭大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检 索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 涉密论文按学校规定处理。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 导师签名： 日期： 年 月 introduction 1 introduction the last few decades witnessed the emergence and development of the polysystem theory and dts in translation studies. in polysystem approach, translation research is confined to the literary/linguistic system, so largely neglects such socio-cultural factors as ideology and politics. as the texts are not put in relation to their contexts, the political uses and effects of translation are elided in its divorce from the context. besides, the study only emphasizes the influence of target culture on translation. later with incorporation of the insights of postcolonial theories, gender studies, and post-modernist thinking into translation research, the translation research focuses not simply on the texts of translation but also the context of translation, i.e. the intellectual, political, social, economic, ideological, or historical circumstances in which a translator works. translation works as a bridge to connect nations and promote mutual understanding, which lies in two facets: first, both sides get chances to know each other; second, both sides comprehend each others culture. in the mutual communication between china and the west, for a long time, translators have been busying with introducing foreign literary works to chinese, so chinese know more about western culture than westerners do to chinese culture. in the 20th century, the west translated only few chinese literary works 1, for it is impossible for them to translate all of the glorious chinese culture into english. in this case, we chinese translators should output chinese literary works positively. but problems appear, as a.c. graham said: “we can hardly leave translation to the chinese, since there are few exceptions to the rule that translation is done into, not out of, ones own language” (qtd. in 潘 文国 41). the west think chinese translators english translation is “awkward and sound more like chinese poems than anything else in englishand disrupts english syntax without teaching the reader the syntax of the chinese” (qtd. in 潘文国 41). hereinbefore we can see that western people can hardly accept chinese translators translation, and western translators transmitted chinese culture with cultural prejudice that had begun from the 19th century(王岳川 111). with expansion of chinas communication with the world, it is necessary to spread chinese culture to the world. the necessity of translating chinese literary works into english is recognized by chinese translation circle. at the same time, the study of chinese-english translation is an urgent work to do. the pivotal point of c-e translation is what to translate and how to translate, that is to say, we should achieve a balance between adequacy and acceptability when we output chinese culture to the west. introduction 2 some doyens have set very good examples for us. in retrospect to the translation history of chinese into english, the author of this thesis notices that gladys yang, a british lady, together with her husband yang xianyi is one of those first few translators who translated chinese into english. futhermore, one can hardly reach the quantity as well as quality of the yangs chinese-english translation up to now. the most widely known characteristic of gladyss translation is the highly faithfulness to both the content and the spirit of the source text, and her translation has been widely accepted both in china and abroad. gladys yang deserved to be called “the woman bethune” working at the cultural and literary fronts in china. she did well in reining up both chinese and english languages and cultures. wang zuoliang once said: “what is the great difficulty in translation? it lies in the differences between two cultures. what is self-evident in one culture has to be painstakingly explained in another.” “a translator must be a cultured person in a true sense. it is said that a translator must have a good command of two languages. it is a truth. but without understanding the social culture in one language, nobody can really master the language.” “he the translator deals with words, while he faces two cultures” (王佐良 19). accordingly, gladys yang was in good command of chinese and english languages and cultures. as a british who had lived in and worked for china for more than half a century, her achievements must be closely related to her special cultural backgrounds. in her translation career, gladys translated hundreds of chinese works into english and many of her translations have had profound influence on foreign readers. some articles published by famous journals in america such as new york times book review and library spoke highly of her translations. for example, wjf jenner writes in her paper insuperable barriers: and all honor too to the tireless labors of gladys yang who, as one of the few native speakers of english working in peking, has produced alone or with yang xianyi readable translations of modern chinese writing in qualities that put the rest of us to shame and set standards of literary excellence and readability that few of us can match in drawing up an assessment of the achievements of translators of modern chinese into english the names of the yangs must be put at the top of the first list.(documentation!) dianalarry in her article in commemoration of gladys writes: gladys spent most of her life in china, but she always kept faith to her british root, especially to english language, her writing style was fully exposed in her chinese-english translation（杨宪益，164). these comments show that gladyss c-e translations are well accepted by the introduction 3 west. gladys set a very good example for chinese translators who translate chinese into english. chinese translators can learn a lot from her so as to achieve acceptability as well as adequacy in the c-e translation. researches on gladys in china fall into the following three categories: the first kind, also the biggest in quantity, is translation criticisms and comments on her specific translated works. this includes articles published in all kinds of magazines and journals, master or doctorial degree theses and some books of translation studies. but most of the criticisms and comments focus on the works of the yangs cooperation, such as a dream of red mansion, the scholars and selected works of lu xun, and only few are on gladyss own translations. we could only obtain several comments and researches on her translation the butterfly, border town, recollections of west hunan, etc. the second kind is her biographies, autobiographies and interviews conducted with her and her husband. this kind of research focuses on systematic introductions of her life experiences rather than her translation activities. but it still has its great values because it presents her background and personal life. li huis work yang xianyi and gladys yang: walking together( 杨宪益和戴乃迭： 一同走过 ) is a memoir on the spouses life experience and translation career. after gladyss death, mr. yang collected gladyss unfinished autobiography, her articles introducing chinese literature and articles written by friends in commemoration of her, and had them published with the title i have two motherland-gladys tayler and her world (我有两个祖国戴乃迭和她的世界), in which we can read about gladyss spiritual world. besides, gladys and her husband received a lot of interviews both abroad and at home, from newspaper journalists to television interviews. these interviews center on the introduction of their life and achievements. the third kind of research is articles about her translation outlooks. it is a regret that gladys seldom talked about her translation strategy, including her purpose, but we can learn from what her husband-her long-term golden cooperator yang xianyi-said in some interviews and articles. we can also get some of her views about translation scattered in the prefaces and postscripts of her translated works. from the above mentioned, we know that gladyss works have drawn great attention from the public. her achievements in translation have won favorable remarks from the translation circle and aroused continuous research interests and this has in turn produced profound influences on the development of chinas translation and culture. however, maybe because the number of her translations is too large and most of her translations were done by cooperation with her husband, comments and researches scatter here and there. but gladys introduction 4 did translate a lot of chinese literary works into english by herself. the previous studies on her either focused on her life experiences or centered on some of her specific translated works. at present, there is a lack of systematic study on either her translation activities or her personal backgrounds and the social context as far as the author of this thesis knows. in the hope of bridging the gap, the author intends to conduct a descriptive study on gladys yangs life experience, the social context she worked in and her c-e translation so as to analyze the manifestation of her cultural identity. employing cultural identity and polysystem theory from the social cultural point of view，this thesis will summarize tentatively the relationship between her translation strategies and her cultural identity, and discuss how she was able to achieve a balance between adequacy of the translation and acceptability of the tt in c-e translation. the thesis contains five parts: the introduction first briefly touches upon the puzzledom of chinese-english translation in china. then it presents the studies that have been done on gladys yang as a translator and the deficiencies of those researches. chapter one expounds even-zohars polysystem and tourys descriptive translation studies engaged in translation studies, it also points out the non-adequacy of polysystem theory in explaining literary translation. this part serves as the theoretical support for the study of translators cultural identity. chapter two first gives the definitions of cultural identity and hybrid cultural identity. then it analyzes cultural identity from the perspective of the translator, which mainly includes her/ his national identity, the period s/he lives in, educational background and her/his research field. by presenting her life experience and her major translation activity as well as the influence of the western and chinese cultures on her, the formation of gladyss hybrid cultural identity is manifested. chapter three explores gladyss cultural identity from the perspective of her source texts selection and her translation strategies in re-representing chinese culture. it also discusses the misinterpretation in gladyss translation owing to her hybrid cultural identity. it can be seen that gladyss identification with chinese culture surpasses that with western culture. so when gladys was translating chinese literature into english, she was in the position of helping china output literature to english society rather than input chinese literature for the western society. chapter 1: system-oriented translation studies 5 chapter 1: system-oriented translation studies polysystem sees translated literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary and historical systems of the target culture, it fed into developments in dts, a branch of translation studies that has been crucial in the last thirty years and which aims at identifying norms and laws of translation. systems theories offer theoretical support for the study of translators cultural identity in translation. 1.1 even-zohars polysystem engaged in translation studies the first person that moves translation studies out of the static linguistic analysis of shifts and obsession with one-to-one equivalence is the israeli cultural theorist itamar even-zohar. he developed his polysystems theory in the 1970s, borrowing ideas from the russian formalists of the 1920s. he has tried to explain with polysystem theory that translation is a complex and dynamic activity governed by system relations rather than by fixed parameters of comparing language capabilities. he hypothesizes that literature is a polysystem itself, a system of systems. this polysystem could be described by a series of oppositions: the centre and the periphery, the canonized system and the non-canonized, the systems of translated and non-translated literature. the structure of each system is the consequence of its relationships with other systems. this has opened up a new realm for translation studies. even-zohar thinks it is a necessity to bring translation into polysystem, and no one has done this before. but hardly could any scholar of literature or history deny the influence of translation works on literature and its diachronic and synchronic effect in a certain type of literature. toury brought tr