A Study On The Representation Of Defamiliarization In The English Translation Of The Song Of Everlasting Sorrow

Wang Anyi’s The Song of Everlasting Sorrow is typically filled with various defamiliarized devices carefully employed by the author;its English translation is also labeled as "experimental" for its strangeness to the target readers.However,there is very little research about the representation of defamiliarization in the English translation of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow.The concept of defamiliarization was put forward by Victor Shklovsky,a pioneer of Russian Formalism.In his opinion,the careful usage of defamiliarized devices by authors reflects literariness,the essence of literary works,which possesses the function of differentiating literature from other non-literary works.Therefore defamiliarization plays a crucial role in literary works and in the process of literary translation,it is vital for translators to represent those defamiliarized elements employed by the author in the original so as for the translation to achieve the same aesthetic effect as in the original.This is also the necessary requirement of the objective and criterion of literary translation as well as translation ethics.Based on the defamiliarization theory,The Song of Everlasting Sorrow and its English translation are chosen as a case study in this thesis.The defamiliarized elements of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow are classified into three types,that is,language,rhetoric devices and culture,and for each level,it is analyzed in a detailed way whether the two translators Michael Berry and Susan Chan Egan have reproduced in the target text the defamiliarization of the original.Meanwhile,also discussed are their translation methods,what effects the translation has achieved and the translators’ consideration of the acceptability of the translation.The study finds out that,as regards the defamiliarized devices of the original,the translators have almost noticed those devices and tried their best to transport them to the target text.Their translation not only brings the target readers the same aesthetic pleasure as acquired by the readers of the original,but also promotes the cultural exchanges between China and Western countries.Besides,the successful translation also proves that literariness,which is embodied in the defamiliarized devices by authors,is translatable.In the process of literary translation,translators are supposed to make efforts to observe the aesthetic values of the original produced by the linguistic form while seeking a balance between the representation of the defamiliarization of the original and the acceptability of the translation.This study,focusing on the representation of defamiliarization in the English translation of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow,serves as a return to the very nature of literary translation.With this study,it is expected that translators could pay more attention to the defamiliarized devices of the original and adopt proper methods in literary translation to represent those devices as possible as they can,thus providing some insights on the translation of contemporary Chinese literature.