From norm-breaking to norm-making: a sociological study of the genesis of a new norm

摘要

Norm conformity has attracted much attention in norm-based descriptive translation studies, while norm-breaking remains under-investigated. Studies on norm-breaking shed light on changes, conflicts, and tension, which are often excluded in descriptive studies focusing on collective patterned behaviours. As norm-breaking usually precedes the making of a new norm, it is critical to ask why some norm-breaking practices successfully develop into new norms while others end up nowhere. Approaching norm-breaking and norm-making as two stages of the genesis of a new norm, this paper aims at investigating three research questions: who breaks norms, why some norm-breaking practices successfully make new norms while others do not, and what contributes to the transformation from norm-breaking to norm-making. A case study was conducted on Zhang Guruo's translation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles into Chinese in 1936, with special reference to his breaking of the norm of not translating literary dialect. With Bourdieu's field theory as an analytical model, this paper approaches the genesis of a new norm as a social action that reflects and changes field structures and involves active structuring efforts of the norm-breaker and other agents.