A Study On Prose Translation From The Perspective Of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory

In the Chinese literary system,proses occupy the same important position as novels and poetry do.Proses are of great practical significance for promoting cultural dissemination.However,literature study finds that the present research on prose translation is not so systematic,and the theories applicable to prose translation have not been paid more attention to.The flexible structure,vivid language and unique style of proses have become important factors that affect prose translation and its studies.Therefore,it is very important to promote prose translation and its studies.Liang Xiaosheng’s prose The World Awake describes the author’s growing experience from childhood to adulthood,from childish to mature,and from confusion to sobriety,which is very realistic.These experiences truly reflect the changes and influences brought by the social background to the people at that time.Analyzing the language features of The World Awake,translating it into English and further exploring prose translation strategies can provide some references for prose translation studies.Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory was put forward by George Steiner in 1975.In the theory,Steiner put forward the Hermeneutic Motion: “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation”and “restitution”.Trust refers to the meaningfulness and seriousness of the text.Aggression refers to a deep understanding of the original text,which is reflected in language and culture.Incorporation focuses on the absorption of form and meaning.Restitution is the act of repairing the original text.Prose translation is to reproduce the value,language,meaning and style of the original text,which is consistent with the connotation of the Hermeneutic Motion.Therefore,based on Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory and translation of The World Awake,this thesis makes a deep study on prose translation strategies through completely analyzing the values of Chinese proses and the linguistic features of The World Awake.Firstly,in this thesis,the studies on the theory,prose translation and Liang Xiaosheng’s works are overviewed.The origin and development of the theory are explored.Its main concepts and the commonalities between the theory and prose translation are interpreted.Secondly,the aesthetic,cultural,literary values of Chinese proses and the lexical,syntactic and stylistic features of The World Awake are analyzed.Thirdly,based on the above,according to the four motions of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory: “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and “restitution”,eight translation strategies are dug out with case illustration.Under the guidance of “trust”,initial trust and translatability trust are used to analyze the value and translatability of this prose;under the guidance of “aggression”,language aggression and cultural aggression are used to translate vacabularies with Chinese characteristics,long sentences and so on;under the guidance of “incorporation”,strategies of form incorporation and meaning incorporation are adopted,which can show not only the characteristic but also the clear expression of this prose;under the guidance of “restitution”,direct c restitution and indirect restitution are adopted to compensate for the lost information in the translation process.At the same time,this study proves the feasibility of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Translation Theory in prose translation.