On The Contradiction And Unification Of Translators' Style And Authors' Style

The conveyance of style has long been one of the most delicate and intricate problems in literary translation. Theoretically speaking, there is no scientific and universally accepted definition of style-from a macroscopic point of view, it includes styles of age, nationality, class, literary schools and so on; from a microscopic point of view, it is usually understood as authors' preference of some linguistic usage to that of others, that is, authorial style. The vague and subtle definition of style makes stylistic study in translation even less operational, for the nature and principle of translation differ from literary creations in many aspects.The traditional translation theories describe translation as the transformation of two different languages. Under the assuming prerequisite that the same meaning can be expressed in different languages, the convention naturally contributes excessive worship to the source text, trying to achieve, however illusory, the so-called pure "faithfulness" and "equivalence"; and at the same time, naturally and consequently, disregards translators' creativity and presses the demonstration of translators' style. Against the traditional stereotyped translation theories, the thesis explores the room for the demonstration of translators' style on the three layers of differences concerned in translation process: first, the dissimilarities of the two involved linguistic systems provide essential freedom for translator to manipulate linguistic units, namely lexis, syntax and discourse; then the gaps of cultures and the varieties of individuality immersed and cultivated in the culture even contribute more space for translators to show their styles.From a dialectical point of view, though bearing in mind the purpose of opposing the conventional translation stylistic study characterized by the blind worship towards authors' style, the author of the thesis believes that since translation is supposed to be a special "RE-creation", the investigation and reconstruction of authors' style anyhow remain the principal aspect of the contradiction determined by the peculiarity of styles. Translators' creativity actively, or consciously get involved in the process of translation only when it is impossible to achieve corresponding meaning or aesthetic effect; nevertheless, passive, orunconscious creativity of translators penetrates all through. And translators' style, being a systematic "unquantitative fuzzy aggregation", can co-exist compatibly with authors' style in the translation product.Breaking through the bondage of impressionistic and intuitive terms in evaluating literary style, combining style studies with the modern stylistic approach, this thesis analyzes the reproduction of authors' style and formation of translators' style from the angles of stylistic formal markers and non-formal markers, and points out that the "cross-over point" has critical significance in measuring the quality of translation. Translators are supposed to operate their subjective initiative in the possible space, making their style salient under the prerequisite of a maximal conveyance of authors' style.Only by doing so, can translation community cast away the traditional author's-style oriented theories and liberate translators' creativity, so as to raise translators' position and provide translation the deserved affirmation and respect isolated from source text. However, to establish a complete and sophisticated translation stylistics system concerning both authors' and translators' style still needs further research and more endeavors.