A Study Of The Chinese Translation Of E.B.White’s Essays

With the prosperity of literary translation, studies about different literary genres havebeen recognized and analyzed. Among these genres, essay deserves special attention. As agenre of prose, essay does not enjoy a long history, but the traits of essay, for example, thefreedom and plainness in expression pose challenges for the translation of essays. Thepresent researches about essays focus more on Chinese to English translation, but less onthe English to Chinese translation. The reasons, on one hand, are the traits of essay; on theother hand, it is because of the insufficiency in translators, who lack appropriate strategiesand consideration when dealing with essay translation. This thesis would aim to providenew insights into improving the quality of essay translation by implementing translationstrategies using Gestalt aesthetic theories.With relative theories of Gestalt aesthetics, this thesis discusses how to operate textfrom a holistic view, to build up translation strategies on the textual level as well asconnect the separated factors in the text. At the same time, the translator’s subjectivitywould be activated and he would be able to reproduce the text in a holistic way. Thetranslator’s understanding and application of gestalt quality in texts will not only helpactivate the subjectiveness in themselves but also dig into the writer’s intention when hewas writing the text, then the translator could construct schemas and based on the schema,the dynamic equivalence can also be realized and readers would enjoy the text withreadability. The introduction of gestalt aesthetic view will improve the text value by a greatdegree and better realize the identities of translators.By studying the essays from famous modern American essayist E.B.White, the thesistestifies the applicability of gestalt aesthetics in translation practice and explains the ideathat only when aesthetic value is realized can the text gain its value. On the other hand, thisthesis provides new points as well as material for the translation of literary genres.