摘要
林语堂是我国著名的小说家,翻译家,散文家,哲学家,语言学家和词典编纂学家。作为翻译家,他首次提出“翻译是一门艺术”,是将中国文化推向世界的成功的译家;作为一现代作家,他兼用中文和英文创作,是中西方语言和文化的集大成者。
随着跨文化交流的迫切需要,我国目前正面临着本土文化的输出。林语堂作为中国文化输出的先驱之一,以其翻译作品的数量之多和在目的语读者中产生的巨大凡响引起了越来越多的学者的关注。然而大多数学者只集中在对林语堂翻译原则和翻译技巧的研究。这种研究仍然停留在翻译的语言学领域,这与译界提出的“文化转向”相比处于滞后状态,因而不能对林语堂翻译活动作出较深刻的研究和解读。本文旨在勒弗菲尔(lefevere)提出的“改写”理论框架下,从社会文化角度研究林语堂翻译理论与实践。勒弗菲尔从文化的角度,探讨了意识形态,赞助人和诗学是影响译者创作的三大因素。本文正是从这三个要素探讨林语堂的翻译活动,分析林语堂选材和翻译策略的深层原因。本文通过个案分析论证了林语堂在《吾国与吾民》中意识形态,赞助人和诗学对其文本的选择及翻译策略的影响。之所以选择《吾国与吾民》为个案来论证,是因为这本书可视为林语堂人生的转折点。《吾国与吾民》(又名《中国人》)是林语堂先生于上个世纪三十年代在赛珍珠的鼓励下创作的。这本书最初由英文撰写,在美国首次发表就引起了轰动,是当时美国最畅销的书,从此林语堂的名字也响彻美国文坛。正因为这本书的强烈反响,随后林语堂开始了他三十年的旅美创作生涯。
本文通过分析得出结论,林语堂的作品在目的语读者中备受推崇的原因在于他在传播中国文化的同时迎合了西方读者的阅读习惯和诗学传统。而他的作品在当时的中国没有引起共鸣,是因为他背离了当时救亡图存的社会思潮而独抒闲适性灵,但是不能光凭这一点就否认林语堂对传播中国文化所做出的贡献。在吾国与吾民这本书中,林语堂巧妙的将归化和异化的翻译策略结合起来,将中国特有的事物展现给西方读者,并将复杂的中国风俗用通俗的话语介绍给西方读者。纵观中国文坛能传播中国文化并能引起目的语读者共鸣的作家不多,林语堂算是这样的作家之一。当今全球化的趋势要求我们向世界输出中国文化,林语堂的吾国与吾民恰好为我们提供了可借鉴的经验。
Lin Yutang, the famous novelist, translator, essayist, philosopher, philologist and lexicographer in modern Chinese literature, has seen himself as the“world citizen". As a translator, he first puts forward“translation is an art”and helps spread Chinese culture to the world. As a modern writer, he writes in English and Chinese and masters Chinese and Western culture.
With the urgent demand of intercultural communication, China meets with the problem of outputting its own culture. Lin Yutang, a pioneer of outputting Chinese culture, with a great amount of translation works well received by the target readers, attracts many scholars’attention. However, many scholars just focus their attention on the researches of his translation principles and translation skills. Such researches still remain in the field of linguistic research of translation, which lags behind the Cultural Turn in the translation studies. Therefore, it is impossible to make a profound interpretation and analysis of Lin Yutang’s translation activities.
This thesis is intended to make a research on Lin Yutang’s translation theories and practice within the framework of“rewriting”put forward by Andre Lefevere. From the cultural angle, Lefevere considered translation as the most recognizable type of rewriting whose function is controlled by three main factors: ideology, patronage, and poetics. Based on the three factors, the author explores Lin Yutang’translation activities and analyzes the deep reason of Lin Yutang’s selection of the original text and translation strategies.
The author proposes to make a case analysis of My Country and My People to interpret the influence of ideology, patronage and poetics on Lin Yutang’s selection of the original text and his translation strategies adopted. The reason why the author takes My Country and My People as a typical example is that the book is considered to be the turning point in Lin Yutang’s writing career. My Country and My People was written in 1930s with the encouragement of Pearl S.Buck. The book was originally written in English and published firstly in America. After its publication, the book became the best-selling book at that time, which secured for him the position of a leading interpreter of China to the West. In the following 30 years, Lin Yutang moved to America and began his writings at abroad.
Through the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that Lin’s success in the target readership can be explained by his tactic strategies that adapt to westerner’s ideology and poetics. However, in China, this book does not produce a resonance because the mind reflected in the book deviates the dominant ideology at that time. It is no doubt to deny Lin’s contribution to spread Chinese culture to the West. In the book, Lin makes a perfect combination of foreignization and domestication stategy, and shows the Chinese unique things and customs to the westerners vividly. His successful translation experience gives us the insights into spreading our local cultures to the whole world.
引文
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