A Comparative Study on the C-E Translation of Tales of Hulan River from the Perspective of Rewriting Theory

Abstract

In literary translation, retranslation is quite familiar. Retranslations of classic works of literature have become very prevalent in recent decades. It is worth noting that retranslations of the same work by the same author are even more valuable. The distinction between the two versions can be manifested in many ways. Under these circumstances, this paper uses the rewriting theory to analyze the retranslation of Tales of Hulan River compared to the original translation to see if there are any reasons for these improvements. To study this question, it is of priority to study the status quo of the retranslation. From a practical point of view, retranslation is becoming more and more popular. The study of retranslation is conducive to clarifying the current situation of literary translation, understanding the problems faced by retranslation in practice, and making some useful references for the translators who are still engaged in retranslation. From a theoretical point of view, manipulation theory has been developed for a long time and still has research vitality after continuous improvement and development research verification. Compared with the 1979 version, the 2002 version of Tales of Hulan River by Howard Goldblatt, have obvious changes on syntactical, lexical and textual level. After more than 20 years, tremendous changes have taken place in the of C-E translation market, including the publishers and successful Chinese culture popularization. And more importantly the author has gained further translation experience which clearly has positive impact on the retranslation. This paper draws on the research vitality of rewriting theory, for it is exactly guidance in revealing the factors of improvements including patronage ideology and poetics. At the same time, descriptive studies on retranslation will be more and more in the following development. This paper hopes to make some contributions to this field through research. This paper is divided into five chapters. The chapters are arranged as follows: The first chapter is the literature review, which explains the international study and domestic study of rewriting theory. The second chapter gives the background information of the research sample Tales of Hulan River. The third chapter lists the three elements of rewriting theory and their roles while applied to translation. Chapter four discusses the differences of the two translations in different aspect, including patronage, ideology and poetics, which specifically compares the improvements in lexical syntactical and textual level. Chapter five draws a conclusion from the perspective of rewriting theory and what is needed for the translators while retranslating classical literature.