马礼逊《大学》英译的文化资本解读

An Analysis of the Cultural Capital in Morrison's Translation of The Great Learning

新教传教士马礼逊选择翻译中国儒家经典《大学》与其家庭环境和教育背景有着密切关系,他积累的身体化文化资本决定了翻译动机是为传教服务。受译者翻译策略与视角的影响,作为客观化文化资本的《大学》英译本并不能如实反映儒家学说,而是西方中心主义优越论的产物。译本在获得制度化形态后逐渐演变为权力话语作用于西方读者,塑造了马礼逊的汉学家权威。以文化资本的三种形式为研究视角分析马礼逊的翻译行为,可以揭示马礼逊《大学》英译的权力话语以及殖民帝国的意识形态,有助于深刻认识翻译活动的社会本质。

Robert Morrison, one of the protestant missionaries, translated The GreatLearning, a Chinese Confucian classic, from Chinese into English, which was closely related to his family environment and education back-ground. The embodied cultural capital he accumulated determined that his translation motive was to serve his mission-ary work. Influenced by the translators strategies and perspectives, the translation of The Great Learning as objectified cultural capital was not a faithful representation of the Confucian doctrines but a product of western centrism instead. After acquiring institut ionalized cu ltura lcapital, the translation gradually evolved in to a power discourse, exerting an influence upon readers in the west and establishing Morrison s authority as a sinologist. An analysis of Morrison s translation behavior from the perspective of three cultural capital forms reveals the power discourse in his translation of The Great Learning and the ideology of the Britishempire, whichhelps to deepen the understanding of the social es-sence of translation.