A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of Oliver Twist: From The Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics

As is known to us all,translation is a very complicated activity in reality,which bridges different cultures to communicate with one anther.Translation is also considered as some kind of interpretation,while hermeneutics is mainly involved in the understanding of meaning and the relationship between reader and text.Therefore,the combination of hermeneutics and translation studies is of paramount significance to the translation theory and practice.Hermeneutics refers to a philosophical school of exploring the understanding of meaning and interpretation.It has experienced a long history from the traditional hermeneutics to the modern philosophical hermeneutics.As the main representative of philosophical hermeneutics,Gadamer in his masterpiece entitled Truth and Method,put forward three basic philosophical principles: historicity of understanding,fusion of horizons,and effective history.Oliver Twist is the second longest novel by Charles Dickens and the major representative work in the period of critical realism.Since its publication in 1838,studies on the novel has begun.This thesis selects the two Chinese versions respectively translated by Rong Rude and He Wen'an,and conducts a comparative study and detailed analysis,which are based on such three basic concepts as historicity of understanding,fusion of horizons and effective history.Through the comparative analysis,we have a better understanding of the differences between the two Chinese versions.Some inspirations can be listed as follows:(1)Due to the historicity of understanding of human beings,the subject or the object should be embedded in the historicality which has its own limitations and particularities.This will inevitably lead to the differences between the two versions in terms of historical backgrounds and personal experiences.The two translators have chosen some distinctive words and phrases in their own times.(2)Because of the gap between time and situation,the author and the interpreter cannot share the same horizon.The two translators have different historical backgrounds and personal experiences;hence,their horizons must be different.As a result,the two translators achieve the fusion of horizons from the linguistic and cultural aspects.(3)Understanding is essentially an effective-historical relation on account of the historicity of understanding.The two translators both reproduce the style of the original text,but in quite different ways.Rong Rude adopts the strategy of domestication and his translated version is more readable with literary charm,while He Wen'an method is foreignization and his version is relatively plain.