A Hermeneutical Reflection Of The Cultural Mistranslation In Fortress Besieged

The cultural turn in translation studies have shifted the attention to cultural translation. Translation is in close relationship with hermeneutics, a theory about understanding and interpretation. Hermeneutics thus finds its wide application in translation studies, for example, in the critical analysis of cultural mistranslation. Cultural mistranslation is a result of a translator's misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the original. It distorts the original meaning and may cause confusion among the target readers. Culture mistranslation has become a serious issue in translation studies. Though this issue has drawn attention from translation theorists and translators, few studies on cultural mistranslation have been conducted from the perspective of hermeneutics.Thus, the author of this thesis attempts to examine the cultural mistranslation from the perspective of hermeneutics. It is hoped that this research will shed new light on translation practice. Taking Fortress Besieged, the English version of Wei Cheng, as a case study, the author makes a careful comparison and analysis of the examples collected from the translation version, based on the four notions of hermeneutics, namely, prejudice, history of effect, fusion of horizon, and subjectivity.This research has revealed three major findings. Firstly, cultural mistranslation is a result of misunderstanding which in turn arises out of the difference of prejudices and horizons between the translator and the author. Secondly, cultural mistranslation is a universal problem in translation. There is no way that the translator and the author share the same prejudice and horizon. Furthermore, the historicity of understanding indicates that there are always mistranslations in previous interpretations. Thirdly, cultural mistranslation does not necessarily mean something negative.The current research has important implications for translation practice. Cultural mistranslation seen from a hermeneutical perspective is thought to be the positive display of a translator's subjectivity. The translator who is free from the dominance of the author could bring their subjectivities into full play. Hermeneutic circle and recontextualization are two recipes suggested for their display of subjectivity, as evidenced in Fortress Besieged.