Abstract

A Dream of Red Mansions marked the end of an era, but created a new age. It is closely connected with the Chinese culture. Different cultural concepts inevitably cause cultural collision and conflict, and, translators will be faced with various difficulties and obstacles in the process of translation. In this situation, creative treason comes into existence for the purpose of achieving an ideal literary version. This paper is intended to make a study of the two translators’ creative treason from the perspective of cultural difference reflected in the two English versions of A Dream of Red Mansions, and especially to explore the causes of the appearance of creative treason in the two versions by Hawkes and Yang Xianyi from three aspects: linguistic barriers, cultural barriers, religious barriers. In addition, the thesis makes a comparative study of two translator’s creative treason in A Dream of Red Mansions in light of translation purpose and translation strategy of two versions. Lastly, the paper illustrates the influence of translators’ subjectivity on literary translation.

Keywords: A Dream of Red Mansions; cultural difference; creative treason;         

          translators’ subjectivity

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

3. Creative Treason-2

3.1 Definition of creative treason-2

3.2 Theoretical foundation for the analysis of creative treason-3

3.2.1 Toury’s “ Translation Norms Theory”-3

3.2.2 Lefevere’s “ Rewriting Theory”-3

3.2.3 Vermeer’s “ Skopos Theory”-4

3.3 Causes of creative treason-4

3.3.1 Linguistic barriers-4

3.3.2 Cultural barriers-5

3.3.3 Religious barriers-6

4. A Comparative Study of Two Translator’s Creative Treason in A Dream of Red Mansions-7

4.1 Translation purpose-7

4.2 Translation strategy-8

5. Translator’s Subjectivity-10

5.1The definition of the subjectivity of the translator-10

5.2 The influence of translator’s subjectivity on literary translation-11

5.2.1 Different ideologies of the two translators-11

5.2.2 Different choices of readers-11

6. Conclusion-11

7. Works Cited-13