A Study Of Yang Yi's Translation Of Wuthering Heights From The Perspective Of Literary Stylistics

Literary stylistics is a theory mediating between linguistics and literature. It serves as a bridge between linguistics and literary criticism—it both lays emphasis on linguistics and pays attention to the description of literary criticism. In literary stylistics, style is regarded as verbal choices in practical use; style and the stylistic effects generated by it are taken into study so as to describe and analyze the linguistic features which contribute to the expression of thematic significance and aesthetic effects and explore their literary value. Literary stylistics can explore the aesthetic significance of literary text while describing linguistic forms; it enables the literary study to step from subjectivity to objectivity. Therefore, it is a touchstone of the evaluation of translation quality for literary translation and literary criticism. (封宗信,1999:40)Applying literary stylistics to literary translation will help translators improve their awareness of stylistics so that they will direct more attention to literary significance contained in linguistic forms and grasp the thematic significance and aesthetic function elucidated by linguistic forms in a better way. Consequently, by focusing more attention on the interaction between form and content, they are able to avoid stylistic losses in translation to the largest extent. At the same time, the application of literary stylistics in translation criticism will make criticism more objective and ward off the traditional criticism characteristic of impressionism and intuition. In China, the theory of literary stylistic has been applied to the translation field and there are relevant studies combining the two fields, but they are far from enough.Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature, is the only novel written by Emily Bronte, one of the three Bronte sisters. It is completely different from the contemporary works. In the book, ardent love, violent hate and merciless revenge are described. It is like a lyric poem full of rich imagination and intense feelings between the lines, which brings heartshaking artistic power. The research on Wuthering Heights has been carried out for a long time and has covered a wide range of aspects, involving thematic significance, artistic charm, character depiction, comparative studies, writing motive of the writer and so on. There are many Chinese versions of Wuthering Heights, but the study of translation of it needs to be furthered. Yang Yi's translation of Wuthering Heights was first published by Shanghai Pingming Press. After "the great Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976), it was reprinted by Jiangsu People's Publishing House. In 1990, it was printed again by Yilin Press which was separated from Jiangsu People's Publishing House. Later, Yang Yi's version has been reprinted by many other publishing houses and has gained an enduring popularity. In 1986, she won the only translation prize in the First Jinling Literature Prize organized by Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles. The translated novel was reprinted for tens of thousands of copies every year since 1990 when Yi Lin Publishing House got the right to print it. Now there are hardcovers, paperbacks and popular editions. Some hardcover copies have even been collected by the British Bronte Museum. (勿罔,1995:32) Besides, Yang Yi's version published by Yilin Publishing House won the Seventh National Outstanding Award for best-selling books. Yang Yi was very responsible and careful for her work. Her translation is quite faithful to the original; it not only keeps the flavor of the original, but also reads smoothly. Her translation well demonstrates the meticulous spirit of the translator of the older generation.As for the study of the translation of Wuthering Heights, little work has been done from the perspective of literary stylistics. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze Yang Yi's translation of Wuthering Heights by using some methods of literary stylistics in order to examine whether or not the stylistic features of the original are kept, based on the scenery description, the depiction of major characters, dialogues between different characters and figures of speech and some comments will be made.