On The Representation Of The Defamiliarization In Twelve Years A Slave:a Perspective Of Translational Aesthetics

Twelve Years A Slave, one foundational works of African-American literature, unfolds the author’s remarkable talents of reining language in style, rhetorical skill and arctic technique, of which defamiliarization is frequently employed. By Defamiliarization underlying in the lines of the whole work, the author not only vividly portrays the American slaves’bloody history of returning home, but also attributes the meaningful aesthetic experience and aesthetic value to this novel.The first edition of Twelve Years A Slave printed in 1853 was greatly sensational in North American but then faded away for a century, so it was until in 2013 that its Chinese version came to be officially published in China. The research relevant to translation of this novel is almost blank at home and abroad, and translation studies on black fictions alike are mostly from some theoretical perspective and a few suggestions are given to improve some deficiency of translation. Besides, studies from the comprehensive translation aesthetics and defamiliarization are few and far between. Since there are wide differences of artistic techniques between Chinese and English, to represent the unique aesthetic quality of the source language, especially the aesthetic quality of defamiliarization, is extremely difficult for the translators. Therefore, the translators have to abide by the content of the text more, losing the representation of aesthetic quality of defamiliarization in target language, and leaving some regrets in translation field.I venture to make a study of the representation of defamiliarization of Twelve Years A Slave by combining the translation aesthetics and defamiliarization art theory. Taking two Chinese versions of Twelve Years A Slave published respectively by Peking University Press and Wenxin Publishing House as research text, I will make a comparison on the representation or loss of defamiliarization in this fiction from the two aspects of translation aesthetic value system:content aesthetic value system including rhetorical devices of the meaning transference and semiotics system; formal aesthetic value system embodying phonetics, diction, syntax. By analyzing the representation of defamiliarization, I will make every effort to advance my suggestions or measures to balance up the loss of values of defamiliarization in the target language.In conclusion, the thesis is intended to study the representation of aesthetic quality caused by defamiliarization form the perspective of translation aesthetics, develop translators’ aesthetic awareness, qualities and application abilities of defamiliarization, and bring the ingenious Occidental literature’s glamour to our Chinese readers.