Intertextuality In Advertising Translation

Intertextuality, is a new method of literary criticism first proposed by Julia Kristeva in 1969. She ever proposed that every text is made up of a mosaic of quotations and every text is the absorption and transformation of other texts (Hatim, 1990:125). It emphasizes the effects of reference, interaction, infiltration and metastasis among texts, and concerns about the non-deterministic and non-central features of texts. Nowadays, it has been widely used in literary and linguistic studies, while it was officially brought into translation studies in 1990s by Hatim and Mason. They pointed out that the theory of intertextuality and translation studies fundamentally have common grounds; under the perspective of intertextuality translation can be liberated from the originally closed structure and freed from the mechanical operation, at the same time highlights the translators'subjectivity, creativity, intention and transcendentalism.Advertisement as a practical writing style has a special commercial and communicative function. It is also endowed a very rich cultural connotation. Thus for the translation of advertisements it is necessary to probe into its cultural and humanly factors so as to boost the communicative value of advertising. With the growing prosperity of China's economy and the continuous advance of global economic integration, countries compete to seize the international market and to promote their products, thus the successful translation of advertisements can help to overcome the linguistic and cultural barriers for the penetration of national products into the international market. But translating advertising texts is not an easy thing, which needs careful handle of the various aspects in the process of cross-language and cross-cultural communication and the consumers'socio-cultural and psychological needs in particular. This thesis explores the operating mechanism and application value of intertextuality in advertising translation and creation; it also illustrates with rich examples that intertextuality can solve some translation problems that can not be solved by traditional translation theories in advertising translation so as to prove intertextuality as a new, flexible, and effective guiding theory for advertising translation.Six parts are included in this thesis: the introduction, four chapters of the body and the conclusion.The introduction part elaborates the research background concerning intertextuality and advertising translation, the purpose as well as the content and frame of the research.Chapter one is mainly a review of the research of intertextuality both at home and abroad.Chapter two first illustrates the connotation and different categories of the intertextuality theory, and then analyses the general features of translation as an intertextual activity and the value of intertextuality in advertising translation.Chapter three illustrates the intertextual features of advertising translation and a demonstration of its values in the advertising translation.Chapter four is the core of this paper which puts forward five specific methods of advertising translation under the guidance of intertextuality theory which include transliteration, imitation translation, quotation translation, adapted translation and creative translation; then the author suggests that application of intertextuality in advertising translation should take into consideration the qualifications of translators, the target readers'cultural psychology and ability of appreciation. Finally the enlightenments are generalized about the application of intertextuality theory in advertising translation.The last part of this paper is the conclusion. It points out that intertextuality theory proves to be a more effective guidance for advertising translation. It can help us solve advertising translation problems mentioned in this thesis better than the traditional theories. At the same time, the paper gives a brief analysis of the limitations of the application of intertextuality in advertising translation. Intertextuality emphasizes too much on similarities among cultures, while advertising translation stresses creativity, the application of intertextuality does exist some difficulties. Anyhow we can not deny the great application value of intertxtuality in advertising translation studies.