硕士学位论文-从2001_2006外文图书在中省略版现状看本土文化对翻译选择的影响.pdf

分 类 号 学 号 学校代码 10487 硕士学位论文 硕士学位论文 从 2001-2006 外文图书在中国的翻译出版 现状看本土文化对翻译选择的影响 从 2001-2006 外文图书在中国的翻译出版 现状看本土文化对翻译选择的影响 学位申请人： 毕燕燕 学 科 专 业 ： 英语语言文学 指 导 教 师 ： 许明武 教授 诸光 副教授 答 辩 日 期： 2007 年 5 月 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Influence of local culture on translation choice a descriptive study of the translation and publication of foreign books from 2001to 2006 in China Candidate : Bi Yanyan Major : English Language and Literature Supervisor : Professor Xu Mingwu Associate Prof. Zhu Guang Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, P. R. China May, 2007 独创性声明独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是我个人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研 究成果。尽我所知，除文中已经标明引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究做出贡献的个人和集体，均已在 文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到，本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名： 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，即：学校有权 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。 本人授权华中科技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。 保 密 ，在_ _年解密后适用本授权书。 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“” ） 学位论文作者签名： 指导教师签名： 日期： 年 月 日 日期： 年 月 日 本论文属于 I Abstract The theoretical background of this research is cultural turn in translation studies. In the past 2000 years, translation studies have always focused on the issue of how to translate; while from the 1950s, translation studies in the west began to pay more attention to studying translation from the culture level, instead of the pure linguistic level concern. The “cultural turn“ in translation studies has become a new perspective to study translation. It asserts that translation studies should deal with the problem of what translation does and why translation does so from the cultural perspective. Therefore, this thesis will discuss the influence of culture on translation choice from the perspective of the publication of translated foreign books. In the early 21st century, a wealth of foreign books are translated and published in China. This research investigates the translated foreign books published by two domestic representative and authoritative publishing houses in China, YiLin Press and Shanghai Translation Press from the year 2001 to 2006, in order to get a general view to the trend of translation choice in Chinese translation circle at present. The author collected data from two aspects: source countries and subjects of the translated books. The statistics show that most of the source books come from U.S. and U.K., and most of the rest come from Germany, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. The third world countries also cover a small percentage of the source countries. As for the subjects, most of the books belong to the categories of literature childrens literature, philosophy and religion, social science. Translations of books on natural science, economics, art and law also occupy a small percentage. This thesis is a descriptive study on these translation phenomena, including the result of translations of foreign books and the culture factors which affect translation choice. And some comments are made following the description. In order to make the research II more scientific and objective, the author mainly pays attention to the culture factors in a broad sense hiding behind the translation choice. According to the classification and definition of different culture factors in the theory of culture turn in translation studies, the author makes a detailed and further illustration and analysis of the influence of culture factors on translation choice, including politics, ideology, economy, culture in a narrow sense and culture position. The analysis shows that translation choice is affected by culture factors to a great extent. Key words: culture turn publication translation choice culture factor influence III 摘要摘要 本研究以翻译的文化转向为理论框架。 两千多年来， 翻译研究几乎都是围绕 怎 么译展开的，但是自 20 世纪 50 年代以来，西方翻译研究不再囿于狭隘单纯的语 言转换层面，而是更多地从广阔的的文化层面去审视翻译。翻译研究中的“文化转 向”逐渐成为翻译理论家研究和考察翻译的新视角。翻译的文化转向主张研究翻译 在做什么并从文化因素来探讨翻译为什么这样做。因此，本文试图对外文图书在中 国的翻译出版状况进行描述，以此来研究文化对翻译选择的影响和制约。 21 世纪初正处于全球化最鼎盛的时代，各国之间经济、科技、教育的交流也日 益加深，国内翻译出版了大量的外文图书。本文采取从具体到一般的方法，通过调 查国内最有代表性的两个权威翻译出版社，即译林出版社和上海译文出版社在 2001-2006 年间所出版的汉译外文图书来发现目前翻译届翻译选择的一般趋势。 笔者 从原著国别和品种这两方面对其进行统计。统计后发现这些外文图书大多来自英国 和美国，其余多是法国、德国、俄国、日本，还有一些图书来自第三世界国家。在 翻译出版品种上，文学，哲学宗教，社会学较多，自然科学，经济，艺术，政治法 律等也占一定比例。 作者将对这一翻译现象进行概括性的描述研究， 包括 2001-2006 外文图书的翻译 状况，影响和制约翻译选择的文化因素。在描述后又对这一翻译现象作了总结评论。 为达到更高程度的相对全面、科学与客观，笔者关注隐藏在翻译选择背后的广义文 化因素。论证部分主要按照翻译的文化转向中对影响翻译的文化因素的定义和分类， 深入阐述和分析了译语社会的政治，意识形态，经济，狭义的精神文化及文化地位 对翻译选择的影响，认为文化因素对翻译选择有很大影响。 关键词关键词： 文化转向 出版 翻译选择 文化因素 影响 IV Contents Abstract.I 摘摘 要要. III Introduction.(1) 1 Literature Review 1. 1 Culture turn in translation studies(5) 1. 2 Previous study of influence of culture on translation(7) 1. 3 Definition of culture and its classification.(16) 2 Methodology 2.1 Research objectives.(19) 2.2 Research objects(19) 2.3 Research procedure.(20) 3 Results and Analysis 3.1 A descriptive study of translation of foreign books at the early 21st century.(24) 3.2 Analysis of influence of culture on translation.(26) 4 Influence of translation on contemporary culture 4.1 Influence of translation on Chinese culture(42) V 4.2 Influence of translation on world culture(44) Conclusion .(45) Acknowledgements .(50) References(51) Appendix I Published paper during study of MA(56) 1 Introduction Reasons for the present study In the past two thousands of years, translation studies have always focused on the issue of how to translate. But from the 1950s, the translation studies in the west began to pay more attention to studying translation from the culture level, instead of the pure linguistic level concern. Nowadays, the “cultural turn“ in translation studies has become a new perspective to study translation. The author finds that “cultural turn” in translation studies is prevailing in the present translation field and will be further developed in the age of globalization, because it is really significant to put translation study in the broad cultural context. Translation and culture are closely related. The most outstanding representatives in this era are Bassnett and Lefevere. According to Susan Bassnett, the study of translation practice has moved on from its formalist phase and is beginning to consider broader issues of context, history and convention (Bassnett and Lefevere, 2001:123). The shift of emphasis was known as the cultural turn in translation studies. In their work Translation, History and Culture, they suggested that the scholars use terms such as “patronage”, “refraction”, and “ideology” in order to go into the vagaries and vicissitudes of the exercise of power in a society, and what the exercise of power means in terms of the production of culture, of which the production of translation is a part” (Bassnett and Lefervere, 1990:5). This indicates that patronage plays an important role in translation studies. And Lefevere also suggested that publishing house is one kind of patronage (Lefervere, 1992:13). Besides, Xie Tianzhen, also pointed out “cultural turn” opens another door for translation studies. It does not aim to put forward the traditional question that has always been annoying translation theorists: how should we translate; what are correct translations, but aim to shift the emphasis to the 2 method of description: what does translation do (Xie Tianzhen a, 2003:13). Under the guidance of the ideas of the previous scholars who are famous and representative in the field of cultural translation theory, the author got an inspiration that a descriptive study on the types of foreign books that have been translated into Chinese and published will be of great significance to the study of translation. A lot of great achievements have been made in translation practice since the second half of 20th century. And the 20th century has been called the age of translation. All these translations have made great contributions to the development of society. They promoted Chinese people to get more information about foreign countries. They enriched peoples thinking. They behaved like a bridge between China and foreign countries to spread advanced technologies and theories. They served as the medium for communication of different cultures. And with the coming of globalization age, there is a continuance of translation practice. A wealth of foreign books are translated and published. Therefore, this research did a descriptive study of the translation and publication of foreign books from 2001-2006 in China. In 2001, Susan Bassnett made a statement about the influence of culture on translation in Constructing Cultures: a translation always takes place in a continuum, never in a void, and there are all kinds of textual and extra textual constrains upon the translator. These constrains, or manipulatory processes involved in the transfer of texts have become the primary focuses of work in translation studies, and in order to study those processes, translation studies has changed its course and has become both broader and deeper (Bassnett what is studied is the text embedded in its network of both source and target cultural signs and in this way Translation Studies has been able both to utilize the linguistic approach and to move out beyond it (Bassnett what are correct translations, but to turn to put the emphasis on the method of description: what does translation do (Xie Tianzhen a, 2003:13). In conclusion, cultural turn in translation studies mainly advocates that translation study should turn its eyesight on the culture factors from an objective point of view. For example, it should study the question that what does translation do and why does it do so? That is to say to make an analysis of translation phenomena from the perspective of culture factors, both of which are objective. And it can be said that translation studies achieve a shift from the sphere of linguistic skills to socio-cultural one. Therefore, the major research task of this dissertation comes out of this theoretical foundation. It is to study the influence of culture on translation choice from the objective translation phenomena that what kinds of foreign books have been translated into Chinese and published. 1.2 Previous study of influence of culture on translation Since the establishment of culture turn in translation, it has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad. Since culture turn in translation mainly asserts translation studies should be put under the context of cultural context, they have made a lot of statements of the relation between translation and culture. As this dissertation mainly deals with the influence of culture on translation, statements of influence of culture on translation studies will be reviewed in order to make sure the classification and definition of culture factors that impose influence on translation. 8 1.2.1 Study of influence of culture on translation abroad Culture turn in translation studies is established in the west originally. As Zhang Nanfeng has put forward, many western translation theories，especially the newly developing translation theories have not been fully understood by translation researchers in our Chinese translation circles. And our translation researchers have not been so familiar with such theories in the west, let alone the application and check of theories in the practice (qtd. by Xie Tianzhen a, 2003:3). Accordingly, firstly we should make a clear knowledge about the influence of culture on translation in the west. Now the academic field of translation studies have achieved a consensus that translation studies takes a shift from the mere linguistic transcoding to cultural transfer. Christiane Nord (1991) replaces translation with “intercultural communication”; Holz-Manttari (Lawrence Venuti, 2000:216-217) substitutes “translatorial action” for translation; and Andr Lefevere (1992) regards it as “acculturation”. R. Daniel Shaw (1988) even coins a new word “transculturation”. Some other scholars in the translation field, including James Holmes, Andr Lefevere, Susan Bassnett, Mary Snell-Hornby, Eugene Nida and Peter Newmark also have made a lot of correlated deep and detailed statements. The term “Translation Studies” was adopted in 1970s by James Holmes, a reputed translation theorist in Netherlands. Standing between the two opposite modesliterary translation and linguistic translationJames Holmes, in his treatise The Name and Nature of Translation Studies, “coined the term “Translation Studies” for a non-allied and new approach” (qtd. by Gentzler, 1993: 74). The birth of this term frees translation from the bondage of literary and linguistic approaches, and at the same time, indicates that the study of translation is turned to focus on a broad perspectivethe cultural context of translation. 9 This proposal wins support from American translator Andr Lefevere, who, a few years later, “argues that the antagonism between the two opposing factionswhich he calls the hermeneutic (referring to the literary translation approach) and the neopositivistic (the linguistic translation approach)is based upon“mutual (willful) misunderstanding The (translation) theory would gain by being developed along lines of argument which is neither neopositivistic nor hermeneutic in inspiration” (ibid). Therefore, the status of translation is upgraded by its separation from comparative literature and linguistics. According to Lefevere, translation studies absorb nutrients from both linguistics (scientific) and literary (non-scientific) translations. As a result, translation can be studied in a broad cultural context, which attaches great importance to such factors as authorities, patrons, ideology and poetics (qtd, by Guo Jianzhong b, 2000:159). The idea of Lefevere is further developed by Susan Bassnett, who claims that translation is “indeed a discipline in its own right: not merely a minor branch of comparative literary study, nor yet a specific area of linguistics, but a vastly complex field with many far-reaching ramifications” (Bassnett, 1988: 1). In establishing the status of translation, she highlights the significance of the relationship between language, culture and translation: “language is the heart of culture, and the surgeon, operating the heart, cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his peril” (Bassnett, 1988: 14). The relationship between language, culture and translation serves as a foundation for translation studies because translation not only involves the rendering of the source language into the target language, but also the transferring of the source culture into the target culture. She approves Snell-Hornbys argument that translation experiences a “cultural turn” (Hornby, 2001: 8), which suggests translation is an activity between two cultures. Therefore, translation can neither be measured in the term of “equivalence” (Bassnett, 1988: 28) adopted by Nida, nor be considered in isolation, but “must be located in the specific cultural-temporal context within which they are utilized” (ibid). 10 In addition, inspired by German functionalists, Susan Bassnett indicates that the aim of translation is to make the target text related to the target culture fulfill the function of the source text in the source culture, i.e. the target text should incarnate the function of the source text. This argument is of much significance in the development of translation studies. It not only serves as a guide for the translators but also solves the problem of untranslatability (qtd, by Liao Qiyi, 2000). A good case in this point is the translation of the metaphor “skeleton in the cupboard”, for which we cannot find the corresponding expression in Chinese. In this case, different solutions work in different text types: If this metaphor appears in the text which is intended to present the uniqueness of the English culture, a literal rendition plus a note is enough; and in other cases, it can be translated freely on the condition that it fulfills the function of communication. Mary Snell-Hornby gave the remarks that “neither the word, nor the text, but the culture becomes the operational unit of translation” as “momentous” (qtd. by Gentzler, 1993:188). In 1988, he published her influential book Translation Studies: Towards an Integrated Approach, which furthered the development of translation from cultural perspectives. After making an insightful survey of the traditional translation theories and the dichotomy phenomena in translation history, Hornby points out that translation is an independent discipline adhering to neither the linguistics nor comparative literature. She defines translation as an interaction between two cultures instead of an activity taking place just between two languages. Thus, she puts forward the integrated translation approach, in which, translation “begins with the text-in-situation as an integral part of the cultural background, and hereby text-analysis proceeds from the macro-structure of the text to the micro-unit of the word being seen, not as an isolatable item, but in its relevance and function within the text” (Hornby, 2001: 2). In this sense, translation draws on many disciplines (literature, linguistics, psychology and so on), but is not equal to the total sum of their overlapping areas and is not dependent on any one of them. As a discipline in its own right, translation studies concern essentially with texts against their situational and 11 cultural background. Therefore, this approach calls for the competence of the translator in languages and cultures. In addition, Hornby “understands culture as not just the “arts”, but in a broader anthropology sense, as referring to all socially conditioned aspects of human life, a perspective that broadens the parameters of normally considered by translation theories, prescriptive or otherwise” (qtd. by Gentzler, 1993: 182). Eugene Nida a