A critical analysis of the translation of white tiger within the framework of manipulation theory

Abstract

Translation plays an important role not only in promoting communication among people from different countries, but also in the development of a country’s politics, culture and society. Since the “culture turn” appeared in 1980s, translators and scholars studying translation practice have paid more attention to the social and cultural context of translation rather than purely linguistic analysis of a text. Lefevere’s manipulation theory became one of the most prominent theories at that time.

The author intends to discuss the rewriting appeared in the Chinese version of White Tiger by analyzing the manipulation of ideology based on Lefevere’s manipulation theory. Case studies are conducted to figure out how ideology manipulate the translation of White Tiger. In this thesis, all of the differences between English and Chinese versions are found out. It is discovered that dominant ideology manipulates the translation by selecting the original text, censorship the translation process to ensure the political correctness of the target text in China. The translator employed omission, adaption and addition to ensure the translation conformed the requirement of dominant ideology.