Abstract

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Title:: Study of Jackson’s translated version of Water Margin——beginning with Bourdieu’s doxa

Author(s):: LU Dongping; ZHANG Lu; School of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu，China

Keywords:: translation studies; doxa; field; capital; habitus; Water Margin by J. H. Jackson

Abstract:: Doxa, one of the conceptual tools in Bourdieu’s sociology, originates from social agent’s misrecognition of the objective world, and can be regarded as the division of orthodoxy and heterodoxy. The introduction of doxa into translation studies might assist the research in the social factors behind the translated text with field, capital and habitus. Then, on the basis of the study, the social and cultural factors behind the translation of Water Margin(1963 version and 2010 version) by J. H. Jackson are examined. The research shows that doxa in the translated field illustrates the qualification of the translator to practice in the target field in terms of capital, his translating tendency to ethnocentrism or cultural diversity from the aspect of habitus and his recognition of power relations between agents on the basis of field. Influenced by his doxa, Jackson produced a smooth and transparent Water Margin(1963 version) under his translating tendency to ethnocentrism. The Water Margin(2010 version) was proofread by Edwin Lowe who updated the translation of personal names, titles and units of measurement, and borrowed the title of Shapiro’s translation of Outlaws of the Marsh as the subtitle. The translated text as the final product is underpinned by the struggle and compromise of agents with different doxa.