| Self-translation,a special and complicated translation phenomenon,is considered to be a kind of ideal translation since the writer and the translator is the same person,so that the core of the original text remains.Compared with traditional translation,there are much more changes and rewriting in self-translation and instead of obeying the principle of faithfulness,self-translators can enjoy greater flexibility and creativity.Owing to the particularity of self-translation,it has missed the attention of scholars at home and abroad for a long time,and there are many self-translated works of bilingual writers which contain rich research value but rarely arouse scholars’ notice.Research on self-translation is groundbreaking in that it questions the binary notions of author and translator,original and translated texts.Besides,it helps to reconstruct self-translation norms and build related theory.Lin Yutang is well-known for his English-written novels and translated works of Chinese classics.However,his self-translated works have not drawn enough attention.This thesis will take Lin’s self-translated essay collection--The Little Critic as the research object to explore the self-translation strategies and thoughts of Lin.Self-translation is a special intercultural verbal communication,and since there is different information stored in the brains of the ST readers and the TT readers,it is unavoidable to meet cognition gap,which may cause obstacle of the TT readers’ understanding.Faced with readers from different cultural backgrounds,Lin Yutang subconsciously took into account the problem of asymmetry in self-translation and made corresponding solutions.The author aims to analyze Lin’s translation strategies based on Relevance Theory and Relevance-Theoretic Translation Theory and will attempt to lead to the rethinking of the fidelity norm in translation and summarize effective translation methods from Lin’s self-translation practice. |
