1。2 Research Methodology

In order to have a clear definition of Bassnett’s cultural translation theory, the thesis intends to do the work in three steps。 First, the thesis employs the method of literature analysis。 That is for the author to read all the literature and documents which are related to Bassnett’s cultural translation theory。 Second, case study is used in the thesis。 Taking The Good Earth as a study case, the thesis tries to show the application of Bassnett’s cultural translation theory in The Good Earth。 Third, comparative method is used to discuss how the Chinese culture is brought to the west, comparing the original version with the translated version of Wang Fengzhen, analyzing the detailed difference。   In this thesis, cases are taken to illustrate the cross-culture translation through Bassnett’s cultural translation theory from ecological, material, social, religious, linguistic cultures in The Good Earth。论文网

2 Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory

2。1 Language, Culture and Translation

Language and culture are closely connected with each other, for no language can live in the world unless it is immersed in the context of social culture and no culture can survive which does not have the structure of natural language at its center。 Bassnett (2000) states “language, then, is the heart within the body of culture, and it is the interaction between the two that results in the continuation of life-energy。” Language, the primary communications tool, can effectively express and transmit culture。 In the 1980s, the translation studies had great progress and a new perspective called cultural translation theory appeared。 But linguists still faced great challenges。 It was proved by the comments of Susan Bassnett when coped with the literature translation: The great success of machine translation makes people believe the linguistic methods of translation is a useful and an effective way。 At the same time, their methods are not applicable for the translation of literature works due to the particularity of literature。 Aren't the literature works not written by languages? Aren’t there large differences between the language of linguistics and the languages that translators are researching now? To solve these problems,Susan Bassnett came up with the idea that it’s time to change the translation methods and she called it the cultural translation theory。 It means that translation should put language into a certain cultural context and the translation unit should convert from discourse to culture。 Bassnett has great influence in the translation circle all over the world。 Her great works includes Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction,Translation studies and Translation, History and Culture。 In 1990, she first put forward translation studies ought to take the “cultural turn”。 The great discovery offered researchers of translation studies inspiration and approaches。 Since then, a major breakthrough has been made by translation studies。 A new school called the cultural school appeared in the domain of western translation theory。 It is deemed that her cultural translation theory is not really ideal, for instance, Zhao (2009) states that the definition of “function” is not specific enough and so is the notion of “shift”, however, Bassnett’s efforts to the translation theory shaped her as an excellent representative of cultural translation theory,especially her proposition of taking culture as the basic unit and translation purpose。 Yang (2014) refers that the main idea of Bassnett's cultural translation are as follows: firstly, culture is the translation unit and translation can’t be restricted to the discourse level; secondly, translation serves as an activity of communication, not just a fixed procedures of decoding and recoding; thirdly, translation can’t be limited as the display of source language culture, but to involve the functional equivalence to the target text: fourth, to meet needs of different cultures and groups, translation must follow corresponding norms and principles in different times and places。文献综述