On The Translator's Aesthetic Psychology In Literary Translation

Literary translation, as an art, calls for translators'artistic creativity and sense of co-creation with the original author. Aesthetics, as a study of beauty and art, encompasses the philosophy of art, which is mainly concerned with the nature and value of art and the principles related to its interpretation. As a branch of aesthetics, aesthetic psychology mainly studies the mental activities in art appreciation and creation. This paper aims to analyze the literary translator's aesthetic psychology on the basis of the theories of aesthetic psychology. The paper will cover such issues as the significance of the application of the principles of aesthetic psychology to literary translation, the elements of aesthetic experience of the translator in literary translation, the aesthetic psychological distance and the aesthetic empathy in literary translation and the aesthetic personality in literary translation. Chapter two, as the key part of the paper, details the aesthetic subjective condition in literary translation, which is made up of aesthetic need, aesthetic competence and aesthetic ideal. The application of the principles of aesthetic psychology may facilitate the literary translation practice and criticism as literary translation is a complicated aesthetic activity in which the translator's aesthetic psychology plays the major role. Through this paper, the author not only proves the necessity of applying aesthetic psychology in literary translation, but also systematically illustrates the influence the translator's aesthetic psychology exerts in literary translation. Besides, the paper makes a full illustration of the aesthetic distance and the aesthetic empathy as well as the aesthetic personality in literary translation on the theoretical basis.