Lu Xun's Translation Theories: A Hermeneutic Perspective

The research object of this thesis is the great translator Lu Xun. As a translator, Lu Xun devoted his life to probing into social transformation and people's liberation, making his translation as a "fighting weapon" to inspire the Chinese people to save the nation. As a translation theorist, he inherited and absorbed Chinese and foreign traditional translation theories to form his own ones. Lu Xun's translation theories are profound and inclusive of many important aspects of translation studies, including translation motive, translation criteria, translation method and strategy, translation criticism and retranslation, which forms a strict and integrated system, rather than be in disorder. Some of them are still fresh and even going ahead of times, such as the foreignizing translation strategy, the construction of translation criticism and the necessity of retranslation still have great influence on today's translation field rather than fade over from our sight.Hermeneutics is a discipline with rich connotations for translation studies. Besides the study at the linguistic level, hermeneutics also provides guidance for other aspects of translation studies, and opens up the study of the translator. According to the theory of hermeneutics, the translator should be the subject of translation activity and go through the whole process of translation. This defines the identity and the role of the translator, and returns the translator the original status that he should possess. At the same time, the subjectivity of the translator is given enough affirmation. This thesis takes advantage of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, i.e., historical interpretation and prejudice, fusion of horizons and effective history as the fundamental frame. From the perspective of hermeneutics, this thesis attempts to explore the translator's subjectivity in Lu Xun's translation theories within the special cultural and social background in that period of time. Its aim is to examine his shift from prevailed domestication to aliened foreignization in practice, his adherence to foreignization as well as the selection of texts to be translated in different periods in his translation career. In addition, an attempt has been made to find the theoretical support for Lu Xun's theory of retranslation in hermeneutics.