A Study Of Literariness In C-E Translation From Iconic Perspective

Lu Xun is one of the celebrated writer of Chinese literature duringtwentieth-century for his powerful criticism of Chinese social and political crisis aswell as his prominent contribution to employing the vernacular as a literary language.The thesis concentrates on the analysis of the connection between iconicity, thetechnique of defamiliarization and the achievement of its aesthetic effects ofliterariness in Lu Xun’s collection of novels, outcry (Na Han), and develops acomprehensive investigation of outcry (Na Han) and its two English versions underthe concrete principles of diagrammatic iconicity, specifically, the principle ofcohesion, the principle of sequential order, the principle of quantity, the principle ofsymmetry and the correlation between these iconic principles and defamiliarization.In terms of the interplay between diagrammatic iconicity and defamiliarization inthe process of C-E translation, their relationship can be divided into two major types.For one thing, during the process of C-E translation, the degree of literariness of bothsource text and target text depends on the correlation between iconic principles andthe technique of defamiliarization. On the journey to literariness, the cohesion oficonicity and the iconicity of sequential order contradicts with the technique ofdefamiliarization. In these cases, in order to reproduce the literariness of the sourcetext, the translator follows defamiliarization while violates the related principles oficonicity. For another, in the correlation between iconicity and defamiliarization, inthe pursuit of literariness and its transformation from one language to another, theprinciple of quantitive iconicity and that of symmetrical iconicity tally with themotivation of defamiliarization. Under such circumstances, iconicity is foregroundedwith defamiliarization, iconicity gives impetus to defamiliarization and both serve therealization of high degree of literariness in source text. In C-E translation, to a largeextent, the literariness of the source text is reproduced on the basis of the compatiblecombination of quantitive iconicity, symmetrical iconicity and defamiliarization.The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapters one is an introduction to theissues to be covered in the study, reviews the basic literature, including iconicity, defamiliarization, a brief introduction to Lu Xun’s novel, outcry (Na Han) and thebackground literature of the links between iconicity and defamiliarization in literarytranslation. This chapter also includes the purpose, scope and organization of thisstudy. Chapter two involves literature review which covers the previous translationstudy in the light of iconicity and defamiliarization, and C-E translation study of LuXun’s novel as well respectively. Chapter three offers theoretical frameworks: thecognitive treatment of iconicity, the principles in iconicity, the motivation ofdefamiliarization in C-E translation and the relation between iconicity,defamiliarization and literariness. Chapter four provides a comprehensive analysis ofhow defamiliarization and iconicity are intertwined within the structure of literarytexts. This chapter consists of detailed sample analyses for investigating howiconicity–defamiliarization links manifest themselves in terms of sequential order,quantity and symmetry in Chinese and its English translation of literary texts.Chapter five is the final part as conclusion, a summary of the main claims aregiven and further issues are proposed. This chapter summarizes both major findingsand limitations in this thesis and offers some proposals for further studies.