On Literariness Of The Scarlet Letter In Translation

It is innovative to study literary translation from the perspective of literariness,a concept put forward by Russian formalist Jacobson.He argues that "the object of literary science is not literature but literariness,i.e.,what makes a given work a literary work." In literary translation,literariness is often reflected in rhetoric,stylistic features and narrative styles.Based on literariness,this thesis studies The Scarlet Letter.The Scarlet Letter is a masterpiece in the history of American literature written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.Its literariness is embodied in many aspects including the prominent characters,the rich symbolism,the poetic language and the multiple themes.The Scarlet Letter allows a variety of interpretations on its character,symbolic connotation,and theme,and we can look at it from the perspectives of love,sin,salvation,humanity,religion and feminism.This thesis analyzes the recreation of literariness of The Scarlet Letter in the translations of Shi Heng and Yao Naiqiang to discuss the reservation,loss and compensation of literariness in literary translation.When translating The Scarlet Letter,Shi Heng and Yao Naiqiang both tried to reproduce its literariness.However,the decisiveness of Hester,hypocrisy of Dimmesdale and misery of Chillingworth were weakened in Shi Heng's translation.With the reservation,loss and compensation of literariness,the image of the characters in the history of Chinese and Western literature history diverged.It also led to a different interpretation of the theme.Individualism is a theme of The Scarlet Letter often mentioned in Western books on literary histories,but rarely in Chinese ones.This has something to do with the ideology,but the translation played a role,too.Moreover,the symbolism and poetic language of The Scarlet Letter is understated in China as they are more or less lost in the translation,and the acceptance is thus affected.