这是一篇英语语言文学硕士论文代写范文，这篇论文代写文章通过研究麦田里的守望者这本书，并以新中国翻译文学为底色进行深入分析，本文通过编织相关历史资料，从一个非常有力但较少讨论的视角——重述（见第一章）探讨了《麦田里的守望者》（1949-1966）在中国的翻译和流传。这部小说的中文版最初是作为黄皮书之一开始的，它“在1960年代和1970年代毛时代的中国高层官员和学者中流传”（杨，2015，第165页；我的翻译）。To conduct an in-depth analysis of translated literature in political conflicts, thethesis has, by weaving together relevant historical materials, explored the translationand circulation of The Catcher in the Rye in China (1949–1966) from a very powerfulyet less discussed perspective—renarration (see Chapter One). This novel’s Chineseversion first started out as one of the Yellow Cover Books, which “circulatedinternally among the high-class officials and scholars in Mao’s China during the1960s and 1970s” (Yang, 2015, p. 165; my translation).
目录
Acknowledgements
摘要
Abstract
Introduction
Chapter One Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
1.1 Previous Research on the Translation of The Catcher in the Rye
Andrew Chesterman (2005) summarizes four correlative and overlappingapproaches to research on translation—the textual that studies the product, thecognitive that examines the process, the cultural that explores the broader context andthe sociological that investigates the human agent’s power. For the purpose of thissection, the above approaches might be streamlined into two categories only.
1.2 Conceptual Framework:A Narrative Model Revisited
For the purpose of this section, the contextual approach to translation studiesmay be defined as the one that explores textual factors and human agents within asociocultural environment. A textbook example is Aleksei Semenenko’s (2016)inquiry into the process where Rita Rait-Kovaleva, a renowned Soviet translator,overcame political censorship and smuggled Western “otherness” in rendering TheCatcher in the Rye. Nevertheless, the research in question, though largely creating realistic picture of translation, lacks a solid conceptual framework for connectingintra-textual and extra-textual factors, hence its more or less suspicious conclusion. InChina, however, not a few researchers rely on the lens of “manipulation” (Lefevere,2017) or “poly-systems” (Even-Zohar, 2000) to look at the novel’s Chinese versions(e.g., Zhao, 2006; Liu, 2011; Wei, 2011; Hou, 2012; Yang, 2014; Fan & Yang, 2016;Tao, 2017; Peng, 2018). Although both theories have the potential for revealing therelations between ideological dominance and translation phenomena, certain casestudies tend to “arbitrarily attribute everything to translators’ political concern” (Yang,2012, p. ii; my translation), as seen in Wei Huiliang (2011) and Peng Xiangping(2018).
Chapter Two Renarrating The Catcher in the Rye as a Degenerate Work
2.1 Translation Selection:Temporal and Spatial Framing
During the 1960s, the translation of The Catcher in the Rye and othercontemporary Western literary works in China was directly motivated by the draft ofthe Opinions on the Development of Contemporary Literature and Art [《关于当前文学 艺 术 工作 若 干问 题的 意见 （ 草案 ）》 ], also known as the Eight Points aboutLiterature and Art [《文艺八条》]. This draft, first proposed by the Ministry of Cultureand China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and then approved by the CentralCommittee of the Communist Party of China, provided justification for the decision totranslate The Catcher in the Rye:A great deal of work must be done in order to understand the Westernbourgeois and modern revisionist trends in literature and art. [...] A systematicattempt should be made to expose professional writers and artists to thereactionary films, paintings or works in other forms so as to set negativeprecedents for future literary and artistic creations. (Party DocumentsResearch Office of the CPC Central Committee, 1997, p. 373; my As revealed in the excerpt above, The Catcher in the Rye and other works selected fortranslation at that time were cautiously treated as “negative precedents for futureliterary and artistic creations,” or, in Peter Burke’s (2007, p. 10) words, employed to“support ideas, assumptions or prejudices already present in the host culture.” In thesense of social narrativity, the novel in question was removed from its sourceenvironment and embedded in a completely different temporal and spatial context,where certain aspects of the fictional narrative were either accentuated or suppressed.This is what Baker (2006b, p. 112) terms “temporal and spatial framing,” a strategyfor mediating narratives. In fact, what matters in this case is not so much the narrativestrategy itself as the temporal and spatial setting used to frame The Catcher in the Rye,or, rather, the dominant narratives in which the novel’s first Chinese translation wasultimately .
2.2 Internally Circulated Translation:A Regimented Genre
The previous section of this chapter has provided a glimpse into some of thedominant political and poetic narratives that constituted the temporal and spatialsetting in which translation and literary criticism were employed as tools for themalignment of The Catcher in the Rye, the capitalist US and the revisionist SovietUnion. Before giving a socio-narrative account of the criticism that ultimately framedthe novel as a degenerate, reactionary work, this thesis takes an interest in a lessinfluential but equally important factor that contributed to its image as such—internal,or private,
2.3 Public Criticism:Framing by Labeling and Categorizing
Dong’s argument differs starkly from popular interpretations of The Catcher in theRye in today’s China. As noted by Zhang Guixia (2004, pp. 158–159), since the 1990s,the number of Chinese scholars who consider this work a psychological orcoming-of-age novel has been growing. By contrast, Dong’s attempt to classify it as aBeat text seems somewhat arbitrary and requires contextualization.
2.4 Translator’s Postscript:Frame Ambiguity and Selective Appropriation
This section examines the “implicit” attempt made in the translator Shi’spostscript to challenge the authoritative image of The Catcher in the Rye. Shi’sattempt is considered to have been implicit because, as discussed in 2.2, access to thenovel’s translation (and thus to Shi’s postscript) by the Chinese masses was highlycontrolled at the time of its publication, which means that Shi’s disciplinary narrativedid not technically gain entrance into the public eye. Compared with Dong’s critique,Shi’s discursive work possessed limited influence and, in this sense, is considered tohave been implicit. Incidentally, during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), thetranslated novel began to circulate among numerous underground reading groups andsoon became one of the most popular banned books (Song, 2007, pp. 326–327).
2.5 Concluding Remarks
This chapter has illuminated the ways in which The Catcher in the Rye wasrenarrated into a decadent work of the Beat Generation in China (1949–1966). Withinthe Cold-War context, China’s pursuit of socialist modernity, a movement goal forcedby authorities on the Chinese people through perennial exposure, found its typicalexpression in the Othering of the US and the coining of 2RR, which jointlyestablished the intellectual and moral environment for the initial translation of thenovel in question. As it traveled across linguistic and cultural boundaries, the novelexperienced a shift from a widely accessible narrative to a strictly regimented one thatcirculated among the elite class only. In the sense of social narrativity, this shift notonly disclosed the confined narrative space of the public, the publisher and thetranslator but also—through what Baker (2006b) terms “generic identification” (p.86)—contributed to the novel’s negative image. A more direct effort to frame thework as degenerate and reactionary was made by a community of renarrators whospoke for the ruling party. By drawing heavily on the anti-US rhetoric dominatingChinese public life during the 1960s, Dong, along with some other mouthpieces,pejoratively labeled the Beat Generation as “ 垮 掉 的 一 代 ” and categorized TheCatcher in the Rye as a Beat novel. This Beat image was then used to reinforceDong’s justification for his categorization and ultimately contributed to the discursiveprocess of demonizing the US.
Chapter Three Renarrating The Catcher in the Rye as an Avant-garde Novel
3.1 Translating the Title:An Intrusion of the Translatorial Renarrator
In the novel, Holden imagines numerous little kids playing some game in a ryeand pictures himself guarding those kids against falling from a cliff nearby,hence the title “ 麦 田 里 的 守 望 者 .” This title seems to suggest somethingpositive about Holden. [...] However, in reality, there is a lot behind it.Needless to say, what guides Holden’s behavior is his “Beat” mind rather thanredemptive spirit, and the title “ 麦 田 里 的 守 望 者 ” entirely contradicts theprotagonist’s words and deeds. This can only be explained by the writer’sintentional employment of such a title to gloss over Holden’s “Beat” mind andbehavior, which, without any doubt, expands the pernicious influence of thenovel in question. [...] More often than not, an overtly obscene and decadentwork makes the public vigilant and thus has a very limited market. But oncethe obscenity or decadence involved is covered up by a title that echoes withredemptive sentiment, the work would be able to sell its “Beat” thought tomore unwitting readers. (pp. 226–227; my translation)
3.2 Rendering Unconventional Expressions:A Selective Appropriation of Textual Material
Devoted to exploring how The Catcher in the Rye is renarrated as an avant-gardenovel at the textual level, the rest of this chapter begins with a discussion on theunconventional expressions in the original and in Shi’s translation. As Yang (Ibid.)suggests, unconventional expressions, usually in the form of teenage colloquialspeech, are central to what makes this novel avant-garde, because they “provide arevealing insight into an individual’s mental crisis caused by the dominantmechanisms in modern society” (p. 100; my translation). Interestingly, the translatorShi displays a somewhat ambivalent attitude toward such an avant-garde element.Although most of the unconventional expressions are maintained in translation, therestill remain a few omissions. This oscillation can be conceptualized as what Baker(2005) terms “selective appropriation” (p. 9), a narrative strategy already discussed in2.4. Like the case with the postscript, the selective appropriation here is alsoattributable to certain values or positions held by Shi, in which regard his translationprocedures and professional narratives might offer some clues .
3.3 Highlighting the Experiencing Self:A Repositioning of Participants
Apart from generally restoring the original author’s verbal choices, Shi’sprinciple of stylistic fidelity and sympathy for the protagonist also find expression inhighlighting the experiencing self, which forms the focus of the present section. Asnoted by Shen (2019, p. 16), a contrast takes shape between the narrating self and theexperiencing self in first-person narratives: the former recollects the past while thelatter experiences it. Interestingly, Shi’s translation of The Catcher in the Rye ischaracterized by a backgrounded narrating self and a foregrounded experiencing self,hence the shortened distance between the narrator and the narratee.
3.4 Concluding Remarks
In the present chapter, the narrative and stylistic analysis of Shi’s translated titleand text reveals that The Catcher in the Rye has been renarrated into an avant-gardework. Perhaps driven by his principle of stylistic fidelity and sympathy for thenarrator, the translator not only generally reproduces the aberrant language in Salingerbut also partially repositions the participants involved. Consequently, the rethinking ofmodernity is represented and sometimes highlighted in translation, from whichemerges the novel’s avant-garde image. That being said, Shi’s personal and politicalconcern might have urged him to mildly censor Holden’s swear words, whereas thoseminor deletions barely impact on the overall picture.So far, this thesis has unraveled the reframing processes of the novel’s disparateimages. As previously elaborated, the degenerate one originated from the extra-textualenvironment and the para-textual commentaries (see Chapter Two), while theavant-garde one was in essence an implicit product of the translator’s renarration atthe textual level. Nevertheless, there remain certain important questions that need tobe addressed. For instance, how can the interaction between the work’s conflictingimages be interpreted on a theoretical ground? What exact roles did the majorrenarrators play in mediating not just the aforesaid images but ultimately the largernarratives where they were embedded? Some relevant insights could be provided bythe analytical apparatus of imagology and narrativity, which forms the focus of theensuing .
Chapter Four “Degenerate” or “Avant-garde”?An Imagological Interpretation of Narrative Conflicts
4.1 Conflicting Renarrators:An“Infatuated” Critic vs.A “Critical” Translator
Drawing upon Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of productive imagination, Jean-MarcMoura (2001, pp. 25–29) provides an overview of current works in image studies andmanages to highlight an essential feature of images—constructedness. Specifically,Ricoeur invents a special axis that clearly shows the extent to which subjects haverealized the gap between image and reality (Meng, 2001a, pp. 6–7). At one end of thisaxis sits the subject blindly adhering to whatever his or her community imaginesforeignness to be. And such an imagining subject is deemed “infatuated.” At the otherend, however, the subject intends to differentiate between imagination and the realworld, hence what is called “the critical imagining subject, who was infatuated with China’s collective anti-US narratives,contributed back to the production and promotion of the rotten US image, thusmaking it “a symbol that openly and clearly conveys certain message” (Meng, 2001b,p. 188; my translation). Further, Dong’s critique of The Catcher in the Rye was also anattempt to impose socialist values on the Chinese people. By framing the novel in theworst possible light, this critic demonized Western capitalist modernity andlegitimized its socialist counterpart. In this way, Dong canonized the ruling elite’sdominant narrative of an alternative modernity, and thereby preserved China’s“collective identity” (Moura, 2001, p. 32; my translation).
4.2 Competing Narratives:Tensions between “Ideology” and “Exotic Utopia”
Individual and collective imagination, according to Ricoeur, vacillates between“ideology” and “exotic utopia” (Ibid., pp. 32–33; my translation). Ideology means thepower to defend the reality, while exotic utopia tends to exert a force that subvertspatterns of dominance.Given the above, this section argues that Dong’s literary critique manifested theSelf’s dominance over the Other and also configured an ideological narrativeretaining China’s socialist identity, whereas Shi’s translated work was what Mouracalls “the utopian writing that intends to subvert the imagination of a community”(Ibid., p. 37; my translation). Therefore, the competing renarrators’ narratives of TheCatcher in the Rye, as seen from the perspective of imagology, heavily featured anoscillation between domestic ideology and exotic utopia. Specifically, The Catcher inthe Rye’s rotten image framed in Dong’s politically motivated criticism contributed tocanonizing socialist China’s poetic norms and centralizing Chinese authorities’ power,hence the legitimacy of translating the novel in question. Nonetheless, its avant-gardeimage participated in challenging the ruling elite’s dominant discourse and reshapingthe Chinese readers’ narrative positions, especially after this work entered the publicsphere around the 1970s (Song, 1997, p. 63; Yang, 2015, p. 45 .
Conclusion
To conduct an in-depth analysis of translated literature in political conflicts, thethesis has, by weaving together relevant historical materials, explored the translationand circulation of The Catcher in the Rye in China (1949–1966) from a very powerfulyet less discussed perspective—renarration (see Chapter One). This novel’s Chineseversion first started out as one of the Yellow Cover Books, which “circulatedinternally among the high-class officials and scholars in Mao’s China during the1960s and 1970s” (Yang, 2015, p. 165; my translation). By renarrating The Catcher inthe Rye into a degenerate work of the Beat Generation, Dong, along with otherspokesmen for Chinese authorities, demonized the US as an amoral nation, challengedWestern capitalist modernity, and legitimized its socialist counterpart (see ChapterTwo). Yet the translator Shi recreated the original’s reflection on an unfinished andprecarious modernity, thereby smuggling an alternative story from the West intoMao’s China (see Chapter Three). And it was this story that later helped not onlysubvert the ruling elite’s dominant discourse but also reshape the Chinese readers’narrative positions. Informed heavily by theories in imagology, this thesis thusconsiders Dong a critic infatuated with promoting domestic ideology, and Shi acritical smuggler of foreign otherness (see Chapter Four). Overall, the novel’scompeting but symbiotic images constituted a distinctive feature of translating andcriticizing American literature in China (1949–1966), which deserves the attentionfrom a broader scholarly .
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