Indeterminacies In The Da Vinci Code: A Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics

The introduction of Philosophical Hermeneutics into translation studies enables us to look at things differently. It opens up a new perspective for translation studies. According to the theory, everyone and everything is imbedded in certain historical period which helps to build its own horizon.Literary translation means interpretation. Literary works and translators have their own horizons. A literary text is usually made under special historical, social, cultural conditions, with the author’s intention, horizon and writing style. The translator may belong to a different environment with differences in education, religion, language competence. To translate means to intrude other’s horizons with one’s own. The final interpretation will be realized through the fusion of horizon of the text and that of the translator.In this thesis, the writer tries to depict a translating process in which two fusions of horizons happen. One is the fusion of the source text horizon and the translator’s horizon; the other is the fusion of the newly acquired horizon with the horizon of the target culture. Based on the basic philosophical ideas, "Horizon" and "Fusion of Horizons", and "Indeterminacy" of Reception Theory as supplement, this research is illustrated with some typical examples from the Zhu Zhenwu’s Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code, aimed at answering two questions:How is "translation is interpretation" applied to translating process? Should a translator in translation specify all places of indeterminacies in the source text horizon?The interpretive nature of translation is the inevitable outcome of the following factors: the source text horizon, the source culture, the translator’s horizon and the target culture. This makes interpretiveness a universal feature of translating. Indeterminacies in the source text horizon provide with a vast space in which the translator can give full play to his/her horizon during the translating process. This thesis deals with the translating process on a four-layer basis:Prosodic Features, Semantic Reconstruction, Rhetoric Conception and Psychology from the perspective of fusion of horizons. In the translating process, two fusions of horizons have taken place before the target text is finally completed. Whether to concretize the indeterminacy is decided on the premise that the two fusions can be well completed and the target readers can comprehend the author’s intention from their own horizon.