The Application Of Derrida’s Differance Theory In Biography Literature Translation

The thesis stretches from the Derrida’s differance translation theory and incorporates the Chapter VII Writing Itself from Virginia Woolf:an Inner Life, a biography written by Julia Briggs and published in2005, to explore the application of Derrida’s differance theory to biography literature translation. Due to the fact that biography literature has the characteristics of non-literary and literary texts, which determines that, the translator should pay attention to the "historicity","artistry" and also "creativity" of the target text during the translation process. During the translation process of the source text in this report, the translator adopts the three translation norms arising from Derrida’s difference theory of deconstructionism, namely the intertextuality, the translator’s creativity during translation process and the otherness of source text. The report categories the translation challenges encountered during the translation process into three different levels, the lexical level, the sentence level and the textual level, and then analyzes the three levels one by one. In the analysis of each level, the report incorporates the translation norms put forward in Derrida’s difference theory to explain and delineate how every coping strategies were adopted during the translation process. On lexical level, the report analyzes the translation strategies such as conversion of lexical category and extension of lexical meaning, as well as the methods adopted to translate culture-loaded words. On sentence level, the report emphasizes the coping strategies adopted in translating complex-compound sentences and long sentences, such as the split-up, combination and reformulation of sentences. On textual level, the report sheds light on how the embedded inner logical link in the source text and the writer’s intention can affect translator’s choices of translation strategies.Through incorporating translation norms put forward in Derrida’s difference theory to analyze and explain the decision-making process during translation activity, the translator finds out that when dealing with a certain kind of translation challenge the intertextuality, the translator’s creativity and the otherness of source text are in fact intermingled with each other as a unity. During the decision-making process of translation activity, the three translation norms are affecting the translator’s choice at the same time. All in all, when recognizing the intertextuality and the otherness of the source text, the translator still has to represent the original message in the target text in a reasonable way; when the translator’s creativity comes into play, the translator shall not ignore the intertextuality and otherness of the source text.