Translation and ideology: An analysis of Western literary translation in China (1949-1966) using World Literature as an example

Abstract

The literary history, from the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949 to the outbreak of the Culture Revolution in 1966, is well-known as “the Seventeen-Year Literature”. The translation of western literature, mainly referring to European and American literature in this essay, during this period was greatly affected by factors such as political ideology and nation-state discourse. Although since the definition of ideology was first proposed by the French Scholar Destutt de Tracy(1754-1836) in the late 18th century, ideology has seen the emergence of over 150 definitions about its itself and till now no consensus on the issue has been reached among scholars, many of them share some common contents.