Literary Classics Retranslation: From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

In recent years, retranslation has again become a topic at odds among scholars. Theappearance of a vast number of retranslated versions with weak quality arouses thedenial of retranslation, while the fact that there do exist retranslations which are betteror at least as good as the previous versions support the existence of this phenomenon.Thus the author intends to prove the necessity of retranslation under the framework ofRelevance Theory.Though first proposed as a cognitive theory concerning human communication,Relevance Theory has been applied to a variety of disciplines, among which translationseems to be the most influenced one. The important notions in Relevance Theory suchas ostensive-inferential communication, cognitive environment and so on are capable ofexplaining the nature and process of translation. Since it claims to be able to approachhuman communication from its very foundation, the author tries to apply it toretranslation to account for its necessity and significance.Through the study of Relevance Theory and retranslation cases from varioussources, the author argues that retranslation is necessary in the following aspects:First, retranslation is necessary for it is universal that translators make mistakes intheir translation. And retranslation is capable of reducing these errors in the process ofretranslating.Second, translation bears the characteristic of historicity. This feature makesretranslation a necessity for that retranslation meets the need of target readers in the newtimes and thus prolongs the life of the literary work.Third, due to the variableness of translation, the existence of different translationsis reasonable for they represent the different background of different translators andtheir varied viewpoints towards the same original text.The research into retranslation is valuable both in theory and in practice.Theoretically, it justifies the existence of retranslation and offers a new angle forviewing this question. Practically, it provides the translators with the criterion to bepreserved in performing retranslation.