On cultural filters in Lin Shu's Chinese translation of David Copperfield

• Main Author: Yang, Jinyu
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/157725
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Literary translation plays a vital role in cross-cultural communication. Due to the differences in language and cultural background, translators will inevitably carry out cultural filtering and adaptation on the original text to conform to the habits of target language readers. Not knowing foreign languages, Lin Shu filtered and rewrote many of the original texts in the process of translation, adjusted and reconstructed the original texts to a certain extent by using traditional Confucian thoughts and ethical norms. Therefore, his translation provides us with a unique opportunity to understand the relationship between literary translation and cultural filtering. At present, the academic research on Lin’s translated novels is mainly based on comparing Lin’s version with others’, and the focus is mainly on the comparison of translation methods. This dissertation makes an in-depth and detailed analyses from the perspective of religion and ethics on Kuai Rou Yu Sheng Shu(《块肉余生述》), trying to dig Lin’s train of translation thought fundamentally. The development of literature was subject to the political culture, and literary translation in each period was also closely related to the demands of cultural context and social consciousness on literature. Due to cultural differences, there are significant differences in social ethics and religious thoughts between eastern and western cultures. This thesis takes the first Chinese translation of David Copperfield, Kuai Rou Yu Sheng Shu (《块肉余生述》) as the source text to analyze the way in which Lin Shu resolved the cultural conflicts between the East and the West in the process of translation, especially in terms of religious and ethical culture, while exploring the hidden personal literary ideals as well as the historical influence reflected in the translation. Through the above analysis, a glimpse of the specific problems on introducing foreign literature into China from input, acceptance, transmission to transformation can be get. Key Words: Lin Shu, David Copperfield, Cultural Filter, Literature Translation