A Review of Chinese Translation of Biographical Literature (1949-1978)

Mengchu Zhang

《International Journal of Social Science and Education Research》 4卷8期 (2021/08) Pp. 117-127

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202108_4(8).0020

摘要

Biographical literature is one particular type of literary work centering on the story of the biographee's life, presenting truthful description of the main characters and their experiences. This paper probes into the characteristics and strategies of the biographical literature translation in Modern China (1949-1978), demonstrating that the selection of what work, whose work and whom the work is depicting to translate is overtly affected by the following three factors: ideology, poetic and patronage. The translation orientation in the early days of the founding of P.R. China can be summed up as politics-oriented. A large number of translators prefer Soviet literature and domesticating translation method due to the special diplomatic environment and the constraint of contemporary condition. Although the ＂Cultural Revolution＂ has brought an indelible damage to the translation course and the subjectivity of translators were greatly depressed, there are still many translators who undertook the historical responsibility for carrying forward to translation course, having left quite a few classic translated works for later researchers to explore, such as Celebrity biography translated by Fu Lei and Karl Marx translated by He Feng. Through a comprehensive review of the history of Chinese biographical literature translation from 1949 to 1978, this paper also innovatively proposes a reflection on the translation cause at that time and its enlightenment to the contemporary translation circle.

關鍵字

Biographical literature ； Translation history ； Translation approaches

參考文獻

G. Chen: Translation of Literature in Multi-genre (Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, China 2015),p. 1064.

Y.P. Gu: History of Chinese Modern Biographical Literature (Beijing: People’s Literature Publishing House, China 2018),p. 33.

B.Q. Wang, J. Wang,: History of Chinese Translation Thought in 20th Century (Tianjin: Nankai University Press, China 2009),p.233.

F. Cui: Translation of Literature and Politics: A Case Study of World Literature. (Nanjing: Nanjing University Press China 2009), p.394.

Z.Y. Ma: A Brief History of Chinese Translation: Before the May 4th Movement (Beijing: China Foreign Translation and Publishing Company, China 1984),p. 332.