Abstract: Study on different translations of children’s books can enrich the translation literature. This paper, based on translator’s subjectivity, explores two different versions of Oliver Twist translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi(1915) and He Wenan(1978) respectively from perspective of passivity, activeness and self-benefiting. As a result, it is found that both the content and the method of translations are changing with time passing by, and each work has its contemporary characteristics---Lin Shu and Wei yi’s version aims at educating children and make China prosperous while He Wenan’s version is guided by children orientation. Because of evolution of the backgrounds, every translation is not perfect, and the translations shouldn’t be judged in a simple aspect.

Key words: children’s literature; evolution; Oliver Twist; three factors of translator’s subjectivity

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1About Oliver Twist-1

1.2 Purpose and Significance-3

2. Literature Review-5

2.1 Previous Studies on Oliver Twist and its Translation-5

2.1.1 Previous Studies on Oliver Twist-5

2.1.2Previous Studies on Translation of Oliver Twist-6

2.2 Deficiencies of Previous Studies-7

3.Translator’s Subjectivity-8

3.1 General Concept of Translator’s Subjectivity-8

3.2 Three Factors of Translator’s Subjectivity-9

3.2.1 Passivity of Translator’s Subjectivity-9

3.2.2 Activeness of Translator’s Subjectivity-10

3.2.3 Self-benefiting of Translator’s Subjectivity-12

4. Analysis on Two Chinese Versions of Oliver Twist from Translator’s Subjectivity-13

4.1 Passivity in Translations of Oliver Twist-13

4.2 Activeness in Translations of Oliver Twist-16

4.3 Self-benefiting in Translations of Oliver Twist-18

4.4 The Evolution of Children’s Literature From analysis of Two Versions-20

5. Conclusion-21

References-22