A Comparative Study on Two Chinese Versions of Gone with the Wind from the Perspective of Feminist Translation Theory

Abstract

Feminist translation is one of the key topics in current research and has developed by leaps and bounds since the 1980s. In order to correct the potential defects in feminist translation, some scholars put forward the translation perspective of androgyny. It was found that the translation studies of Gone with the Wind were mostly based on feminist translation strategies, but the research on translator’s ability of androgyny has still been insufficient. This paper used Gone with the Wind and its two Chinese translations as objects of the study. It compared different feminist translation strategies the two translators chose in their translations and evaluated whether these two translators have the ability of androgyny. After analyzing these cases, it was found that two translators all used feminist translation strategies to translate. They often used the strategy of “supplement”, and sometimes also used the strategy of “hijacking”, in order to strengthen the existence of female roles in the text. However, when translating characters whose genders were opposite to their own, the two translators failed to think from the perspective of these characters but translated literally or from the perspective of their own genders, which indicated that the perspective of androgyny was still difficult to achieve. Therefore, translators should be aware of the characteristics of two different genders and try to improve their ability of androgyny.