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An Exploration of Hamlet’s Travel in China

Author: ZhaoHongZuo
Tutor: ChenLiMing
School: Sichuan International Studies University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: translation traveling theory transformation Hamlet ideology actualization
CLC: I046
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 107
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Abstract

As a canon, Hamlet has attracted scholars of different fields all around the world for centuries. Chinese Scholars on translation studies have also carried out many interpretations, analyses and criticisms on it. However, most of these criticisms were focused on some particular versions and carried out from a cultural or literary perspective, and research on its translations was comparatively less. Furthermore, most of the researches on its translation were on some particular version and from a philological perspective, but lacked in a study of the overall process. The cultural turn provides a new perspective to translation study. The travelling of one literary work in another time and space by the traffic tool of translation is not only a reflection of the translator’s ideology and ability, but also a cultural product under the co-effect of the historical and social contexts at that certain period in the target language.From the perspective of Said’s“Traveling Theory”, this thesis aims to make a brief introduction to the history of Hamlet’s translating in China, and focus on the representative Chinese translations of Hamlet. It explores its transformations and actualization respectively from the synchronic and diachronic perspectives, including the influence of the social context.This thesis is divided into four parts. The first part offers an introduction to the theoretical background, Hamlet and its author Shakespeare, as well as the beginning of Hamlet’s travel in China. The second part illustrates the passage of Hamlet’s traveling in China by the traffic tool of translation, including a discussion of the transformations and also reasons accounting for them in several representative Chinese translations respectively, arguing that transformation is unavoidable and necessary during Hamlet’s travel if it is to adapt to the target context and to be accepted and disseminated in China. The third part analyzes the translation and transformation of Hamlet in China form a diachronic perspective, in terms of its transformations of the form, of Prince Hamlet’s image, and on the stage. There is also an analysis of the overall trend of its transformation in a certain separate period, which in total reflects the actualization trend of people’s interpretation and translating of Hamlet. The fourth part is the conclusion, which concludes that, on the one hand, there are transformations in Hamlet’s Chinese versions to adapt to the cultural context in China; on the other hand, they are becoming more and more truthful to the source text as a whole.

An Exploration of Hamlet’s Travel in China

Abstract

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