
硕士学位论文
I
ABSTRACT
Self-translation, the activity in which the writer translates his own work, is a rare
phenomenon. In the West, studies on the self-translations of Samuel Beckett, Vladimir
Nabokov and other self-translators have much been done. In China, although there’re many
self-translators and self-translated works, unfortunately, few scholars have noticed this
phenomenon. Lin Yutang is one of the self-translators. As a famous writer and translator, Lin
Yutang made great contributions to the understanding between China and the West, especially
to the introduction of Chinese culture to the world. The previous studies on Lin’s translation
are mainly made in the five aspects: Lin’s translation features, the view of literary translation,
the aesthetic perspective, and the perspectives of Skopotheorie and intertexutuality. As for the
aspect of self-translation, his works are far from being explored. This thesis, starting from the
introduction of the self-translation, reviews the related studies from both at home and abroad,
and then much in detail probes into Lin Yutang’s self-translating by choosing his Between
Tears and Laughter as a case study, which, we think, would contribute to both the theory of
translation in general and the translation study of Lin Yutang.
Based on “Culture Turn”, together with Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory and
Andre Lefevere’s three-factor theory, the present author attempts to analyze his translation
ideas and translated works in the perspective of culture. His translation ideas, as I have
summarized, include the four aspects——principles of translation; ethics of being a translator;
cultural perspective of translation; sentence as translation unit and untranslatability. These
ideas, as a matter of fact, are closely related to his self-translation. In terms of research
methodology, the comparative method is employed in analyzing the first eleven chapters
self-translated by Lin Yutang; the quantitative-qualitative analysis is also preferred in the
discussion regarding the levels of lexicon, syntax, text and aesthesis as revealed in both the
source text and the target text; what’s more, the computer software is adopted for gathering the
language data of differences as well as changes about the stylistic features made by the
writer-cum-translator, which makes the analysis more convincing.
Finally, the thesis concludes that the translator’s ideas on translation decide the translation
process; that the self-translator’s translating and writing influence each other coordinately, and
the self-translation is typically characterized by “creation in translation” and “translation in
creation”; that the self-translator’s translating and writing, owing to their interaction, share
much similarity, especially in wording, sentence-making and the style of the works; and that