A Hermeneutic Interpretation Of Lin Shu's Translation Studies

In the traditional translation study, the relationship between SL and TL alwaysfocuses on the static comparison, the quality and fate of one translation work is alsoalways judged by this static relationship. For the traditional opinion, the TL to somedegree is the copy or duplication of the SL; thereby being faithful to the SL is out ofquestion. It must be admitted that the relationship between SL and TL cannot beignored whether in written or oral translation study. Whether in nonliterary orliterary translation, the translator is always involved in a dynamic situation, eachstep or each decision he makes is not isolated. During the whole translation process,as the subject of translation, the translator plays the most active and also the mostimportant role. Between 1980s and 1990s, a profound paradigm revolution happenedin the field of translation, two watersheds or landmarks can be noticed during thattime, one was the linguistic turn in western philosophy study and the other was thecultural turn in the translation field. Thus the subjectivity of translator began to stepupon the stage and the traditional standard--- faithful and equivalent ---faced thechallenge.The thesis will try to make use of the modern philosophical hermeneutics theorydeveloped by German philosopher Gadamar who was the main representative ofmodern hermeneutic philosophy and the research will target on the way translator'ssubjectivity being expressed in the work and illustrate this topic through the foreignworks translated by the late Qing translator Lin Shu. As it is a common knowledgethat the translation process begins from the comprehension of ST, while the study ofphilosophical hermeneutics theory just focus on the issues of meaningcomprehension and interpretation. There are three core concepts in Gadamarianphilosophical hermeneutics: prejudice, fusion of horizons and effective history.After that, the thesis will select a lot of examples from Lin Shu's translation works which are also representative and suitable to explain. In terms of the three coreconcepts mentioned above in the Gadamarian theory, firstly, cultural mistranslationin Lin's translation works can be explained well from the aspect of historicality ofunderstanding; with the prejudice the TL is no longer the simple duplication of theSL; secondly, as the horizon of the translator could never get completely overlappedwith that of the SL, so cultural filter is inevitable, what Lin Shu did in his translationis purposeful. Besides, as the articles at the present time which concern thesubjectivity of the translator mainly apply one theory to explain the issue and theirresearch method usually lack of the stratification of the translator, so what theresearch currently does is to abstract Lin Shu from the social-cultural settings andseldom to comprehensively analyze Lin Shu, since Lin Shu is a person whopossesses emotions. Taking this situation into consideration, the thesis will apply themanipulation theory of Andre Lefevere as supplementary theoretical framework andanalyze Lin Shu from three aspects: personal, social and cultural, in order to restorethe original state of Lin Shu as much as possible.At the end of the thesis, two conclusions will be given. Firstly, the nature of LinShu as a historic interpreter determines the historicality of his translation works;secondly, translation criticism should be carried on with an appropriate historicalattitude, the translation criterion should be reevaluated. One thing should be pointedthat the thesis is just a pilot trial not a comprehensive research of Gadamarianhermeneutics applied to the translation studies.