Translating Virginia Woolf's feminist perspectives in the 20th and 21st century

Abstract

This thesis examines how Virginia Woolf’s feminist discourse has been translated, reframed, and ideologically negotiated within the Chinese context across different historical periods. Woolf’s narrative technique, especially the use of free indirect discourse, challenges established gender norms, making these four works—Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando: A Biography (1928), and A Room of One’s Own (1929)— exemplary texts for analysing gender representation in literature and society. Focusing on gender representation, linguistic transformation, and cultural adaptation, this study explores how Chinese translators have addressed Woolf’s complex feminist discourses and evolving constructions of gender, identity, and power. Based on Catford’s theory of "translation shifts" (1965) and Toury’s idea of "optional shifts" (1995), the research assesses how feminist roles and expectations are conveyed to Chinese audiences through these translations. A mixed-method approach is utilised, combining a self-constructed diachronic corpus with detailed textual analysis and content coding using NVivo and WordSmith 6 to examine the linguistic, cultural, and historical variations in Chinese translations. This study uncovers two main findings. First, it challenges the common belief that early Chinese translations of Virginia Woolf’s works were uniformly conservative. Instead, it shows that some early translators actively engaged with Woolf’s feminist ideas, sometimes even emphasising them despite prevailing historical and ideological limitations. Second, the analysis reveals a pattern where co-translated works tend to prioritise fidelity, and sometimes even amplify feminist ideas, whereas individual female translators are more inclined to employ interpretive strategies that emphasise gender critique. Conversely, male translators frequently downplay or domesticate feminist elements. These findings suggest that translator identity and the structure of collaboration significantly influence ideological positioning, regardless of the historical period. This research contributes to feminist translation theory and Woolf scholarship by highlighting the significance of translator agency and collaboration in shaping feminist discourse through translation.