A Study Of Chang Nam Fung's View On Translation From The Perspective Of Gestalt Psychology

This paper is attempted to make an initial study of Chang Nam Fung's view on translation from the perspective of Gestalt psychology by applying the law of integrity, the law of simplicity, the law of closure and the heterogeneous isomorphism in Gestalt psychology as its theoretical framework; it finds that Chang's cultural"Macro-polysystem"hypothesis as a holistic and self-autonomous system is more effective and forcible in the study or description of translated works; however, his theory neglects translators'subjective creativity to some extent.Chang is the first person in China who makes a systemic introduction to Even-Zohar's Polysystem theory and modifies it into a more refined version by means of cultural"Macro-polysystem"hypothesis. Polysystem theorists presume that social norms and literary conventions in the receiving culture which is the target system govern the aesthetic presuppositions of the translator and influence ensuing translation decisions; thus changing the traditional perspective with its incorporation of historical horizon. In such a theory, not only the translations and inter-literary connections among cultures are more adequately described, but also intra-literary relations within the structure of a given cultural system are made clear. But in Chang's view, there is something to be desired both in Even-Zohar's generalizations on the interaction between the literary polysystem and other polysystems within the same culture and in Polysystem theory as a framework for the study of specific polysystems in a culture. To complement the Polysystem theory, Chang modifies it into his cultural"Macro-polysystem"which consists of an open set of intersecting and overlapping polysystems– of ideology, politics, economy, language, literature, translation, etc. The study of Chang's cultural"Macro-polysystem"theory from the perspective of Gestalt psychology leads to the finding that his theory can form a holistic and self-autonomous system and can be used to shed light on the investigation of the role of the translator and that of socio-cultural factors involved in translation, especially power relations,though he pays little attention to translators'subjective creativity.As for the theoretical framework of the present paper, Gestalt psychology is made feasible to the study of Chang's translation theory, as it focuses on the configuration and holistic construction of things, corresponding to Chang's view on translation. Scholars have been aware that Gestalt psychology is useful and attempts have been made to apply it to the process of literary translation, but few people have used it in the study of translation theory.The thesis is divided into four chapters:In chapter one, the author first ushers in an introduction to Chang's translation theory and Gestalt psychology, makes a literature review concerning both, and points out the significance of the study and the feasibility of the theoretical framework.In chapter two, the author makes an analysis of Even-Zohar's Polysystem theory and Chang's augmented version of this theory from the perspective of Gestalt psychology and concludes that the former has Gestalt quality and Chang's"Macro-polysystem"is also Gestalt-like, representing a holistic and self-autonomous system. Though Chang's theory ignores translators'subjective creativity due to the emphasis on the outside constrains in translation, it is more effective and forcible in the study or description of translated works.Chapter three is an examination of Chang's"Macro-polysystem"by applying his theory to his own translation, revealing that his theory can be taken as a theoretical framework for the descriptive study of a translated work and can be more persuasively used in the exploration of the function translators and socio-cultural factors perform in translation, especially power relations.In the last chapter, a conclusion is drawn. And then, the significance,the limitations and the further study concerning the present thesis are also elucidated in this chapter.