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VS r+qaL Application of PolysystemTheory inAdapted Children's Literature Translation
Polysystemtheory advancedby Even-Zohar,provides researcherswith a target oriented .IJ //.;
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method to look at translatedliterature as "a particular literary system" and its position within a o'f
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u national(or multi-national)literarypolysysteml(1990:11)In "the Positionof TranslatedLiteratur6".' : focuseson sortingoJt the timing whentranslated within the LiteraryPolysystem",Even-Zohar L
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.t4,.t: ", literaturebecomescentralor peripheralwithina givenculture.Thepositionof translatedliteratur" | ,, /'-,', '., piece work is translated a of how may determinethe role it playswithin its targetliterarysystem, andwhich works aretranslated.To seehow this abstractframeworkcould apply to real life situation,Iwill useChung-lingShih'sresearch,"Adaptationof Gulliver'sTravelsfor Childrenin of the theory. of the PolysystemTheory"to examinethe usefulness Taiwan:a Perspective /
Even-Zoharstatesthat translatedliterature'spositionin a givennationalliterarypolysystem is mobile.In the literarypolysystem,which is dynamicYdt, translatedliteraturedoesnot maintain / L,.s : a peripheralposition permanently.The assumptionff translatedliteraturebenq permanentlyin /' . peripheryq$!is
literary morecommonin the past,derivesfrom the fact thatthe.translated
systemremainsinvisiblemostof the time, be it in the centralor peripheralposition.Onewould wonderhow a systemremainsunnoticedasa "particularsystem"whenit takescentralposition.It is o'original"and"translated" because"in this sifuationno clear-cutdistinctionis maintainedbetween 1990)Accordingto Even-Zohar,threeconditionsof a certainliterature writings".;(Even-Zohar secondis its beingitperiphely or weakness, could give riseto this situation:{irst is its youngrress, andthird is the existenceof the internal"literary vacuum". to ttrefirst condition Children'sliteraturein Taiwanbefore1990seemsto correspond mentionedabovbfor the situationfits into the description:"Sincea youngliteraturecannot immediatelycreatetextsin all typesknownto its producers,it benefitsfrom the experienceof other literatures,andtranslatedliteraturebecomesin this way oneof its mostimportantsystepg;j'(EvenZohar1990)To seehow the changeof children'sliterature'sstatusinfluencestranslationand Shihselectstwo versionsolg$fgd adaptationstrategies,
one Gulliver'sTravels'translation,
publishedin 1978andanotherin 1990,to compareandanalyzethe differences. The resultof the analysisof her casestudyshowsthat the olderversionuseseasierandmore of the morallessonsconveyedin colloquialdiscoursein orderto enhancechildren'scomprehension thetranslatedadaptation.The intentionof teachingmorallessonscanbe seenfrom the deletionof plotsthat do not contributeto the moralitychildrenshouldlearnfrom the storyandthe addingof values.The morerecent acceptable elementsthat areoriginallynot in the sourcetext to emphasize
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from the olderversionbyretding versiondifferen*ie*â&#x201A;ŹJs
more"faithfulry", which meansnot
addinganddeletingplotsandscenesasthetranslatorlikes andusingmoreformal languagest-g$gt "' the style of the languagewould be closer to the original text. Another reasonfor this strategy,which '
includes increaseddensity of four-character-idioms,is to perform the didactic function of a "good"
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children'sliterature,with which the youngreaderswould possiblyenrichtheir vocabulary.To ' of peripheralandcentraltranslated conclude,Shihrelatesthe differencesto the characteristics
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literaturedescribedin Even-Zohar'spolysystemtheory.Thetranslatedtext of the olderversionis . " manipulatedmorefreely sothat it complieswith the existingmodelin the targetsystemwhich placg.greatemphasison moral teaching for children. This behavior accordswith the one that
belongsto theperipheraltranslatedliteraturein Even-Zohar'spolysystemtheory.On the other
ri: hand,the morerecentygfs,ronshowsa translated$1|lhat indicatesmorefaithfulnessto the original t/
pourcgtext, which accordswith Even-Zohar's description of a translatedliterature that has taken c'
centralpositionfs"modeledto a largeextentuponan exteriorliterature".HenceShihclaimsthat
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her casestudyshowstranslationand adaptationstrategiesinfluencedby the statusof the literature with that observedby Even-Zohar. in accordance However,it seemsthat Shihdoesnot distinguish"translatedchildren'sliterature"from "(original) children'sliterature"in this research.Sinceit is "translatedchildren'sliterature"that 1'
mov{ from a centralstatustowarda peripheralstatusandvice versafor "(original) children's /,
InZohar Shavit's modelscoul4be necessary. literature",the act of settingup two separate "Translationof Children'sLiteratureasa Functionof its Positionin the LiteraryPolysystem",it is impliedthat chi|{gn's literaturecouldhardlybe in the centralpositionwithin the macro-literary adultsystem"(Evenpolysystem-4nd\"it behavesin many(...) wayssimilarlyto the non-canonized I,J
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children'sliteraturetranslationwill alwaysbe confinedby either a result, "$S{:a of comprehension and andthe consideration or both principleswhich aredidactic-orientation Zohart9l$l!s
readingabilities.'(Shavit lgig) The constraintscouldbe appliedin both versionsin Shih'scase ,.i..
study.The older version, which is in peripheral position, usesmore comprehensiblelanguageto It.{ t 5 l, f ''
ensurethe acceptability of morality by young readers.The more recent version, which is in central position, consistsof more formal phrasesso that not only could it be more faithful to the original
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text, but also enhancechildren's languageability. This phenomenonpresentsa problem which is if
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children's literature has indeed taken central status,should it be confined by the two principles? Or i ' in other words, should the constraintsbe charactenzeas being only in secondarysystem? Another point that polysystem theory lack is the ability to take social, economic and political factors into consideration.In Shih's research,many assumptionshave to be made to account for the I
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shiftingstatusof children'sliteraturein Taiwan.Exgeptfor the reasonsproposedin the research, therearestill someotherpossibilities.Politicalfactorcanbe seein "TaiwanTranslatedForeign of ResearchStudy"which showsthe dramaticqfincrease children'sliteraturein 1945-1992 The fact that traditionallyMandarin , i'. translationsince1988,which is oneyearafterdemocratization. I t t ' : speakers'childrenwereeducatedby reciting"si shuwu jing" (classicalverses)regardless 9"19: ,-J i couldalsobe oneof the causesthat contributeto the insignificanceof completeincomprehensibility ofthe mobilerelationshipamongall children'sliterature. Polysystemtheoryis a demonstration literatures.It is not perfectandeffortsof improvingpolysystemtheoryhasbeenmadeby many. Andre Lefevere,who highlights the influenceof patronageand refractionis one example. (198212000) Hopefullythis essaywould inspiremoreexploration.
word count:1085
REFERENCE JX.â&#x201A;Ź;ffiIFF, +EigteE4EHEffitr andlVenChongHong(1994)I94s-1992 Cheng, Sieu-Mqi ,Ji 'ri ".* -.. a 'f(h I r' .. iStudyl, Research Foreignchildren'sliteraturein 1945-1992 +#sffififfifi tTaiw&iTranslated -l'
4 19997[lastaccessed http:/lntur.lib.ntu.eclu.tw/handle/246246l1
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November20091
ehu, Pei-lan(1990)ffiTtJIfrWie [Gulliver'sTravels],Taipei:The Kwang-FuBook Co. Ltd. Even-Zohar,Itamar(1974)'IsraeliHebrewLiterature:A HistoricalModel', Englishversionin 1978:75-92 Even-Zohar,
!
(1978)'The Positionof TranslatedLiteratureWithin the LiteraryPolysystem',in Holmes, Acco, ll7-127; reprinted1990in Poetics Jameset al (eds)Literatureand Tronslation,Lettven: StudiesTodayl1(l): 45-51;reprintedin Polysystem Huang,Nan (1978) ffirUIfrffiiE leulliver's Travels],Kaohsiung:The Da-ZhongBookCo. Ltd.
Cucumbers:Text,SystemandRefractionin a Theoryof Lefevere,Andre(1982)'Mother Courageos Literature',ModernLanguageStudiesD@):3-20; reprintedin LawrenceVenuti(ed.)(2000)The TranslationStudiesReader,London& New York: Routledge,233-249.
Shavit,Zohar(1979)'The Self Imageof Children'sLiterature'Paperpresentedat theInternational Conference on the Child and theBook,IstanbulUniversity.
(1981)'Translationof Children'sLiteratureasa Functionof its Positionin the Literary Polysystem' , Poeticstoday2(4): l7l-179. Shih,Chung-ling(2003)'Adaptationof Gulliver ' s Travelsfor Childrenin Taiwan:A Perspective of the PolysystemTheory', TamkangStudiesof ForeignLanguagesandLiteratures(11): 137-163.
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