On Martha Cheung’s Thick Translation Thoughts From The Perspective Of Intertextuality

Against the background of China seeking to build its own theoretical discourse system,academic translation serves as a crucial medium for Chinese discourse on philosophy and social science to expand global influence and gain a greater say in academic arena worldwide.As an emerging interdisciplinary field in philosophy and social science,Chinese translation studies calls for its internationalization through translation.Thick translation is an important mode of academic research-based translation.As a translator and translation theorist,Martha Cheung(1953-2013)was the first to systematically introduce Chinese discourse on translation to the international translation circles through thick translation.The two-volume project of An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation,compiled and thickly translated by her,has been well received in China and abroad.Cheung materialized her thoughts of thick translation by text selection,discourse translation,commentary and annotations in the anthology and other relevant publications out of the anthology.The originality of Cheung’s thick translation thoughts is contained in her theorization and practice of thick translation,which are worth further studying and learning from.At present,except for 10 book reviews on the first volume of Cheung’s anthology,other studies concerning her thick translation practice include only 2 journals and 2 master’s theses.Research specializing in her thick translation thoughts has not been carried out.Therefore,in order to interpret Cheung’s thoughts of thick translation,this study takes An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation volume 1 and 2 as the study object and poses two research questions: 1.What are the connotations of Cheung’s thick translation thoughts? 2.How did Cheung put her thick translation thoughts into practice? The research introduces the theory of intertextuality to study Cheung’s thick translation thoughts of Chinese discourse on translation on the level of textual intertextuality,cultural intertextuality and disciplinary intertextuality.The major findings are: 1.The connotation of Cheung’s thick translation thoughts lies in her introducing thick translation,which is generally applied to literary translation and cultural translation,to the translation of theoretical discourse.She highlights the interpretive nature and construction function of thick translation and discovers the meaning and value of thick translation as a way of cultural self-representation and the glocalization of translation studies.2.In translation practice,Cheung’s thick translation thoughts lie in the intertextuality of texts and multilayer paratexts,the intertextuality of Chinese discourse on translation and that on traditional literary thoughts,and the intertextuality of Chinese and western translation studies.The study deepens the theoretical and practical understanding of Cheung’s thick translation thoughts,enriches the connotation of thick translation,provides a new perspective to the study of thick translation and gives some inspiration to the international communication of China’s philosophy and social science.