A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Translations Of Tess Of The D’Urbervilles From The Perspective Of Deconstructive Translation Theory

As a kind of linguistic philosophy,deconstructionism originated from philosophical field in the 1960s in Europe.It is one of the achievements of European Social Critical Cultural Movement and an important part of post-structuralism.The concept of“deconstruction”is presupposed on“structure”and poses criticism on predominated structuralism.Characterized by doubts and deconstruction,deconstructionism tries to systematically overturn core thoughts of structuralism.It denies the logocentrism and the ultimate meaning of the text,but emphasizing the uncertainly,flowability and openness of meanings,which calls people to reflect on traditional translation standard as“fidelity”,“equivalence”and the relationship between the original and target text,as well as that between the translator and the author.As one of the representative literary works written by Thomas Hardy,a well-known English critical realist writer in the late 19^th century,Tess of the D’Urbervilles tells the story of the female protagonist Tess,who was simple and kind-hearted but was persecuted by social evils and became sacrifice of the society finally.The author focuses his eyes on natural sceneries and customs in his hometown,and vividly reveals English farmers’miserable life in Patriarchal agricultural society.This novel has become classic in the history of foreign literature because of its unique contents,forms and artistic charms.After it was introduced into China,many scholars were interested in it and different translation versions were published continuously,of which translations by Zhang Guruo and Sun Zhili have received considerable attention and approval in translation field.The paper makes a summary of the origin,development and main ideas of the deconstructive translation theory,and conducts a comparative study on the two translated versions from the relationship between the source text and target text,the relationship between the translator and the author,and the standard of translation and untranslatability.The study shows that different social backgrounds and life experiences have influenced the two translators’translation strategies and attitudes,and their explorations in multiplicity of lexical meanings and linguistic varieties indicate that texts are open for explanations.The deconstruction of the text promotes the full exertion of translators’subjectivity.When they communicate with the author,the two translators’appreciation for Tess,their motivations and different understandings on texts including scenery descriptions,characterization,dialogues and rhetorical devices show their own styles and endeavors in continuing the original’s life.After discussing the problems of translation standard and untranslatability according to the“economy principle”put forward by Derrida and his opinions related to translatability,the paper finds that the dynamic translation standard exactly brings about diverse translations.However,for the translations of dialects and proper names,the style of the original is somewhat difficult to convey,which endows translators with the responsibility of properly balancing and transforming between languages through creative interpretations when faced with limits in translation.In conclusion,the deconstructive translation theory provides a new perspective for comparative study of translations.It regards all the texts as dynamic process containing infinite changes and eternal openness,and demands that people correctly deal with the relationship among various aspects in translation,which greatly improves the translators and readers’position.Meanwhile,the deconstructive translation theory advocates reflecting on translated versions with new translation standard,therefore improving the quality and effect of translation as a cross-culture activity.