On Two Chinese Versions Of Vanity Fair From The Perspective Of Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is a discipline of studies on interpretations andexplanations, and during its whole development course it continuouslyhas indissoluble ties with translation. Both of the literary translations ornon-literary translations are inseparable from the understanding andexplanation of the original. This nature of translation contributes to theclose relationship between hermeneutics theories and translation studies.Gadamer is a representative of contemporary western hermeneutics, whoproposed the well-known philosophical hermeneutics that disordered thetheory of traditional hermeneutics, broke the fetters of scientism, crushedthe illusion of pursuing pure objectivism, and eventually highlighted thesubject’s initiatives. He put forward three philosophical hermeneuticprinciples: historicity of understanding, fusion of horizons and effectivehistory.Vanity Fair is a masterpiece of William Thackeray, a critical realistwriter, who portrayed the panorama of the aristocrats in the first half ofnineteenth century in this fiction, and criticized extravagant and decadentlife of the upper-class. The fiction was introduced into China in the earlytwentieth century, and later, various Chinese translations continuouslyemerged, among which Yang Bi’s version in the1950s and PengChangjiang’s in the1990s are most remarkable. The choice of words ofYang’s version is elegant and expressive with flavors of classical Chinesevernacular novels, while Peng’s version won readers’ popularity by itssharp-cut foreignized features. The author poses the questions: Why thecharacteristics of two versions are so different? What factors result indifferent translation strategy adopted by the two translators? Why twodifferent styles of translation can be adored by readers and gain theirrespective reputations? With these problems, this paper will make asystematic comparative study of the two Chinese versions from the perspective of three principles of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics,The thesis begins with the elaboration of the Gadamer’shermeneutics. According to Gadamer, translation cannot be separatedfrom the understanding and explanation of the original text, andunderstanding exists in a historical way, so that prejudices of theinterpreter are inevitable. But not all prejudices are negative. It’s thespecific historical circumstance that gives rise to our prejudices. Hence,the translator’s prejudices which derive from their embedded uniquehistorical circumstances are not obstacles of understanding but itsessential conditions; literary works and the translators have their ownhorizons, and translators from different periods employ their own visionsto understand and translate texts in attempt to realize the diversificationof the interpretation; and effective history endows people from differenteras with the possibility and legality to translate the same original text.Then it introduces the original as well as the two Chinese versions,and later employs Gadamer’s three philosophical hermeneutic principlesto make a comparison with the two versions. It adopts historicity ofunderstanding to explain misunderstanding, fusion of horizons to analyzecultural filtering on the linguistic level and cultural level, effective historyto explain the possibility of multiple versions from the perspective ofinternal and external factors. In the end, this paper can draw a conclusionthat: historicity of understanding is able to explain misunderstanding,which challenges the view of “author’s intention” and “text-centered”.Second, fusion of horizons can explain cultural filtering phenomenon,which undermines the status of author’s ultimate authority. Third,effective history can be used to explain the phenomenon of multipleversions of the classic, which crush the illusion of the ultimate version.