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The Influence of Ideology on Late Qing Pseudotranslation

Author: ZhangYuLing
Tutor: ChenXiaoLi
School: Chongqing University
Course: Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Keywords: Late Qing Pseudotranslation Ideology Soul of Sparta
CLC: H059
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 42
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Abstract

Traditionally, pseudotranslation was not included into translation study, because both the original text and languages conversion did not even exist. However, in recent years, with the extension of translation study, pseudotranslation has been being the object of study. Being a new topic, pesudotranslations has been studied in the western countries for more than thirty years. But the studies in the West which were all based on the translation history in western countries are not all in line with the translating facts in China. It is even newer in Chinese translation world in which only a few scholars who have written paper about it. For example, Eva Hung, Wang Hongzhi and Hu Cui’e had special treatise about pseudotranslation in their books, and other scholars such as Tong Liang, Zou Dunu have published articles about pseudotranslation. What’s more, as an important social and cultural phenomenon in translation history, pseudotranslation will make the function, nature and position of translation much clearer. The leader of pseudotranslations study, Gideon Toury (2001,p.41) also pointed out that until the mystification has been dispelled, the way fictitious translations function within a culture is no different from the way genuine translations do. Therefore, study on pseudotranslations in a certain period is interesting and worthy.China is a country with a great amount of pseudotranslations, especially in Late Qing. So study on pseudotranslations in some historical stage can help us to better understand the translations and history in Late Qing. Translations are not made in vacuum (Lefevere & Bassnet, 2001b, p.14), but root in specific social system. So do pseudotranslations. They will be restricted by historical and cultural factors such as ideology, poetics and patronage, among which ideology is the most important one. It will manipulate the pseudotranslator’s“translation”strategy, choice of material and genre and the acceptance. China in Late Qing Dynasty was never merely corruption. The Qing government was addled and incompetent, and people lived like hell. In order to enlighten people, Chinese intellectuals translated and wrote many works with political motivation. The social and individual ideologies may have an impact on pseudotranslations, for instance, the genre, the strategy, the acceptance and so on. And in turn, pseudotranslations may also reflect the dominant social ideology, and even promote the spread of new thoughts and new ideas under specific conditions. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the cultural facts in China by discussing pseudotranslations in Late Qing from the perspective of ideology.This thesis will take Lu Xun’s pseudotranslation Soul of Sparta as a case study and study in detail the impact of ideology on pseudotranslations in terms of“translation”strategies, the choice of genre and material, and the acceptance. Soul of Sparta is Lu Xun’s first creation, but he claimed it as translation, and it has also been considered as a translation in quite a long time. Later, it was proved to be a creative fiction. For example, some scholars such as Wu Zuoqiao, Jiang Hezhen, Tarumoto Teruo provided some evidences to prove this point. Then, why the“translator”chose the way of disguising? How was the readers’acceptance? To get these answers, pseudotranslations should be contextualized.From the aspect of ideology, this thesis studies the historical and cultural motivation and the acceptance by taking Soul of Sparta as a case study. The author makes a hypothesis that the phenomena of Late Qing pseudotranslations are in some way related to ideology at that time. This thesis discussed the choice of theme and genre, the“translation”strategy and the acceptance of Late Qing pseudotranslations and analyzes Soul of Sparta in detail. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that Late Qing dominant ideology is one of the most important reasons which causes a large quantity of Late Qing pseudotranslations.

The Influence of Ideology on Late Qing Pseudotranslation

Abstract

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