A Study Of Image Actualization In Chinese Prose Translation From The Perspective Of Gestalt Psychology

In China, prose began in the pre-Qin times, developed in the Wei and Jin dynasties, formed its literary character in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The definitions of prose vary in classical and modern literature. In classical literature, it refers to the writings not written in poetical form, such as preface, postscript, travelogue, biography, argumentation, etc. In modern times, prose, poetry, fiction and drama are called four major literary genres. It can be lyrical, narrative and reasoning. It is a literary genre with highly literary value and cultural connotation. And it is significant to translate Chinese prose into English for the translation of Chinese literary works is of wide concern at present. Prose translation is not only to transfer the source language into the target language, but also to evoke the same aesthetic experience in the readers of the target language. Image is a mental picture produced out of language narration on the basis of the writers'sufficient observations of the nature. It embodies the writers'emotions and spiritual experience. It is to stir our imagination and aesthetic perception through a visual presentation of objects, persons and events. It can be a metaphor, a symbol, a character, a scene or an event. It is not completely imaginary or absolutely realistic, but a combination of both. Compared with image of poetry which tends to be illusive and idealized, image of prose tends to be concrete and realistic. It seems loose, scattered and flows within the whole work, leaving to the readers an aesthetic experience and a great imagination which make the prose lively and vividly. These features give prose its unique charm which is called"free form but focused spirit". In prose translation, how to actualize the images is indispensable and worth studying.As for the literary translation, many theories have been proposed, from literary-oriented approach to linguistic-oriented approach, from micro linguistic level to macro cultural level. Gestalt psychology, which has existed for no more than 100 years, has been applied to the study of linguistics and aesthetics. It will be a new perspective to apply it to the study of translation which is related to psychology and aesthetics. This thesis is going to explore image actualization in prose translation from the perspective of Gestalt psychology, taking Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings (《英译中国现代散文选》) as an example.The thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One gives a general introduction to the thesis which consists of the motivation, the purpose, the methodology and the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two reviews the studies of image actualization in prose translation from different perspectives. In the history of translation, some theorists and translators have discussed applying Gestalt psychology and aesthetics to the study of translation. But they only applied some aspects of Gestalt psychology and discussed some aspects in literary translation. They did not do further research on how to apply Gestalt psychology sufficiently to image actualization in Chinese prose translation.Chapter Three introduces Gestalt psychology, analyzes images of prose and proposes the tentative idea of applying Gestalt psychology to image actualization in Chinese prose translation. Gestalt psychology mainly concerns human's perception and behavior. Gestalt theorists believe that what people perceive is not merely a sum or sequence of sensations but the whole configuration of which they are parts. Here the author introduces and adopts law of integrity, law of closure, law of simplicity and heterogeneous isomorphism in the thesis. Then the author analyzes the features of prose image and points out that image actualization in prose translation is not only to transfer the source language into the target language, but also to evoke the same aesthetic experience in the readers of the target language. The author believes that there are corresponding points between Gestalt psychology and image actualization and proposes the tentative idea of applying Gestalt psychology to image actualization in Chinese prose translation.Chapter Four is the main part of the thesis, which tries to apply Gestalt psychology to image actualization in Chinese prose translation from the perspective of practice and criticism, taking Zhang Peiji's Selected Modern Chinese Prose Writings as an example. According to different stages, the author claims that the process of image actualization is: firstly, analyze the images in the original text and actualize them in the translator's mind; secondly, actualize the images in the target language. Gestalt psychology will be used in the process of image actualization and the functions will be explored. Then according to the functions of Gestalt psychology, the author testifies the possibility and feasibility of applying Gestalt psychology to the criticism on image actualization through the comparison between two translated versions of the same text.In the last chapter, the conclusion is drawn. The findings are: firstly, though there are many cultural barriers and linguistic difference between Chinese and English, Gestalt psychology is helpful to overcome such barriers and difference in image actualization in Chinese prose translation. It provides some methods for image actualization and proposes some requirements for translators; secondly, it brings us an aesthetic standard on image actualization in Chinese prose translation according to the requirements proposed by Gestalt psychology. At the same time, the significance and the limitation of the study are also elucidated.