Exploring Deviations In Literary Translation

The purpose of this thesis is to apply the basic sociological theories to literary translation to analyze the deviant phenomena in literary translation and explore the relationship between the literary translation activity and broader social and historical events. Sociology is the scientific study of social interaction and organization. Sociologists point out that each of us is a social being. What we think, how we feel, and what we say and do are shaped by our interaction with other people in group settings. C. Wright Mills presents the term of sociological imagination to refer to the ability to see our private experiences and personal difficulties as entwined with the structural arrangements of society and the historical times in which we live. It allows us to break out from the narrow vision that usually characterizes our daily activities and discern the relationship between our personal experiences and broader social and historical events.Undoubtedly, these sociological theories will shed light on literary translation studies. In the first place, each translator is a social being. He or she lives in a society and must be influenced by the society. To study individual translator and his translation behavior, we need to study the society in which he lives. Second, the sociological perspective encourages us to look beyond the often neglected and taken-for-granted aspects of our social environment and examine them in fresh and creative way. Literary translation is usually related to literature, linguistics and aesthetics. Its social nature or function is the taken-for-granted aspect. This thesis just tries to find a fresh way to explore the deviations in literary translation. Third, sociological imagination allows us to discern the relationship between the individual translator's behavior and broader social and historical events. From a sociological point of view, this thesis tries to explore what are hidden behind deviations in literary translation by examining the relationship between modernChinese literary translation activity and its social and historical background.Strictly speaking, a literary translation should be an accurate reproduction of its original text in content, form and style. However, in actual literary translation practice, things do not usually go as expected and there are many kinds of deviant phenomena. First, because of the many discrepancies between the source and target languages and cultures, some people insist that absolute equivalence is impossible and that the normal use of translation methods could not reproduce the same artistic effect as its original, and then they have to adopt some deviant use of translation methods if they want to get the work done. Further, in order to serve some literary or political needs, some translators consciously deviate from the normal literary translation guidelines and overuse some translation techniques such as abridgement and adaptation. Apart from those consciously made deviations, there is a third kind of deviation that is caused by the translator's cultural misunderstanding or carelessness. At last, deviations in literary translation also include mistakes and translated works of poor qualities caused by translators who lack the serious translation attitudes or the necessary linguistic and literary attainments.To study deviations in literary translation, we need to define norms and deviations in literary translation. Basically, literary translation can be regarded as a social activity. Therefore, this thesis borrows the terms of norm and deviance in sociology to define the norms and deviations in literary translation. Having the similar function of social norms, norms in literary translation are the very "rules" that specify appropriate or inappropriate translation behavior in literary translation activity. Norms in literary translation include the normal theoretical components such as the normal literary translation principles, criteria, methods or skills and so on. Like deviance in social life, deviations in literary translation...