美国女作家哈里特•斯托于1852年发表的反奴隶制小说《汤姆叔叔的小屋：或卑贱者的生活》在美国文学史上具有重要的地位。自从林纾和魏易在1901年将其翻译成中文后，这部著作在不同时期的中文译本在中国引起了许多讨论。上世纪90年代翻译文化学派的代表人物安德烈•勒菲弗尔提出的“翻译即改写”的观点认为，翻译是操纵的产物，而诗学、意识形态和赞助人等都是操纵翻译的因素。他的理论对翻译研究产生了深刻的影响。 本文受到翻译即改写理论的启发，从译者的角度探讨了翻译如何成为改写。笔者认为在翻译的过程中，译者扮演着两种角色，即读者和译者。作为读者，他自身的“前理解”—即接受新观点之前已有的经验和知识，既帮助又制约了其对原著的理解。因此，他在理解原文的过程中，已经进行了“改写”。而作为译者，由于受到社会、文化、历史、意识形态、性别等因素的影响，他的译文实际上已经不是原文的翻版，而是在多种层面上对原著的改写。笔者认为译者对于原著进行的改写，体现为明显的和不明显的两种，它们都带有一定目的，但总的来说这些改写都是各种文化因素影响的共同结果。 本文根据这一理论思路，分析了《汤姆叔叔的小屋：或卑贱者的生活》这部小说的三个翻译版本：林纾与魏易于1901年所译的《黑奴吁天录》，黄继忠于1980年所译的《汤姆大伯的小屋》和王家湘于1998年所译的《汤姆叔叔的小屋》，集中探讨它们是如何改写“汤姆叔叔”这一形象的。笔者认为《汤姆叔叔的小屋》的三个版本的译者都对原文做了改写，但因为改写的角度不同，所以“汤姆叔叔”在不同的译者笔下的形象也是不同的。林纾对原文做了明显的改写，他省略和改写了大量和宗教有关的内容，因此其笔下的主人公的行为出发点是忠于自我的本性；黄继忠对汤姆的形象也做了较为明显的改写，他将汤姆叔叔塑造成一个感情强烈而虔诚的基督徒；而女翻译家王家湘的笔下的汤姆形象感情更平和，但更具反抗精神，改写具有隐蔽性。 通过对这三个译本的比较分析，笔者认为翻译并非一个纯语言信息转换的过程，而是一种文化的翻译，这种文化翻译的本质特征就是改写。
Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life among the Lowly, written by the American female writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 is a milestone work in American Slave Abolition literature. It was first introduced to China by Lin Shu and Wei Yi in classical Chinese in 1901. The Chinese translations of the novel have made great impact in China and aroused heated discussions. Andre Lefevere, one of the representatives of the cultural school in the 1990s, argued that translation is rewriting. By this he meant that translation is the production of manipulation, that is, manipulation through poetics, ideology and patronage. These three factors influence the activity of translation. His theory is significant for translation studies. I agree with Lefevere that translation is rewriting, and in light of his theory, I proposed a methodology from the perspective of translators. I believe that translators have a double role in translation process, both as a reader and a translator. In both roles there are factors that turn the translation to rewriting. When translators are the readers of the original work, they are constrained by their pre-understanding, or preconceived notions that everyone possesses. Thus, translators have different readings of the original text, which results in the rewritings. When the translators translate, influenced by factors of social, cultural, historical, ideological, gender powers and personal experiences, they make strong rewriting and cryptic rewriting. From the perspective of translators, the thesis studies the images of Uncle Tom in three translations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Heinu yu tian lu 黑奴吁天录, translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi in 1901, Tangmu dabo de xiaowu 汤姆大伯的小屋 by Huang Jizhong in 1980 and Tangmu shushu de xiaowu 汤姆叔叔的小屋 by Wang Jiaxiang in 1998. I have found in my study that the three translators of Uncle Tom’s Cabin all have rewritten the original work, but they have done it in different ways. In their translation, Lin Shu and Wei Yi have suppressed the religious contents, and as a result, it appears that Uncle Tom made all his resolution in the fatal moments with the guidance of his own heart. Huang Jizhong, who apparently had an empathic reading of Uncle Tom’s life story, has translated Uncle Tom into an emotional and devotional religious man. Uncle Tom in Wang Jiaxiang’s translation is more moderate in emotion but more resolute and resistant. After further analyzing the reasons that have led to the strong and cryptic rewriting by these translators, I have come to the conclusion that translation is not a pure process of transmitting linguistic message, but it is a cultural translation that involves factors beyond the language.
