A literary translation as a translation project : a case study of Arthur Waley's translation of 'Journey to the West'
Over the last decade, researchers have been applying social theories to study translation as a social phenomenon. Actor-network theory (ANT) is one of the approaches adopted to explore translation production, as carried out in practical circumstances. Studies that focus on everyday translation activities that take place throughout a single translation project, leading to the production of an English translation of a Chinese novel, are few in number. In addition, few have adapted the ideas, concepts, and methodology of ANT to this type of study, and nonhuman actors have never been examined as active participants in translation production. Understanding of the development of translation projects, and translation actor and actions, is also still limited. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to attempt to fill in the above-mentioned blanks, by applying ANT, as the sole theory, to the study of the production of Monkey, translated from Journey to the West by Arthur Waley. A theoretical framework is built based on not only Latour's theories (1986, 1987, 1988a, 1988b, 1999, 2007), but also those of Callon (1986a, 1986b, 1999), and Law (1986a, 1986b, 1992). The objectives of this thesis include 1) to test the applicability
Luo, Wenyan
A literary translation as a translation project : a case study of Arthur Waley's translation of 'Journey to the West'. Over the last decade, researchers have been applying social theories to study translation as a social phenomenon. Actor-network theory (ANT) is one of the approaches adopted to explore translation production, as carried out in practical circumstances. Studies that focus on everyday translation activities that take place throughout a single translation project, leading to the production of an English translation of a Chinese novel, are few in number. In addition, few have adapted the ideas, concepts, and methodology of ANT to this type of study, and nonhuman actors have never been examined as active participants in translation production. Understanding of the development of translation projects, and translation actor and actions, is also still limited. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to attempt to fill in the above-mentioned blanks, by applying ANT, as the sole theory, to the study of the production of Monkey, translated from Journey to the West by Arthur Waley. A theoretical framework is built based on not only Latour's theories (1986, 1987, 1988a, 1988b, 1999, 2007), but also those of Callon (1986a, 1986b, 1999), and Law (1986a, 1986b, 1992). The objectives of this thesis include 1) to test the applicability
literary_translation translation_project case_study translation journey west researcher apply social_theory study translation social_phenomenon actor_network theory ant approach_adopt explore translation production carry practical circumstance studies focus everyday translation activity_take_place throughout single translation_project lead production english_translation chinese novel number addition adapt idea concept ant type study nonhuman actor never_examine active_participant translation production development translation_project translation actor action also still limit aim_therefore attempt_fill above blank apply ant sole theory study production translate journey west theoretical_framework build base theories also law objective include test applicability