A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of The Secret Garden From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

The Secret Garden is a well-known children's novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is not only a classical and popular novel which is filled with rich aesthetic values but also an elegant and beautiful story. Since its first publication in the US in 1911, scholars at home and abroad have done a lot of researches on them. As for its Chinese translation, so far there have appeared many Chinese versions of this work. In spite of the researches done on The Secret Garden, there are few in-depth and systematic studies on its translation, still less from the perspective of translation aesthetics. In view of this, the present thesis attempts to make a systematic study of this novel from the perspective of translation aesthetics based on two Chinese versions respectively by Li Wenjun and Zhang Runfang.The novel itself is of superb aesthetic values, and the writer of this thesis holds that there is still much room to explore in this regard. Thus this thesis applies Fu Zhongxuan and Liu Miqing's theories of translation aesthetics to the comparative study on the aesthetic analysis of the original and the two translated versions of this novel. The writer tries to make a study on the aesthetic representation in the translated versions from two aspects: aesthetic representation of the formal aesthetic values, which includes the reproduction of the beauty of sound, lexis, and syntax, and aesthetic representation of non-formal aesthetic values, which includes the representation of imagery system and culture. Through the comparative study on plenty of examples selected carefully from the translated versions, the thesis gives a detailed analysis. Besides, the writer also examines the aesthetic subject which, in this thesis, includes the two translators and children readers. Analysis on the two translators is given from several aspects and a trial exploration into the children readers is made. The writer discovers that on the whole, both versions are satisfactorily handled, although Li Wenjun's translation is a little bit better than that by Zhang Runfang in terms of aesthetic flavor. Of course there is still room for improvement in their translation.This thesis bears the purpose of instilling a fresh insight into the study of the translation of The Secret Garden. Through the application of aesthetic theories to the study of translation theory and activity, the writer is trying to prove that translation aesthetics can be an operative vehicle for appreciating the aesthetic constituents and assessing the translation product. It serves not only as a guiding criterion, but also an aesthetic yardstick by which to measure whether a translation is good enough or not. This is certainly helpful to the translation criticism and translation practice. Many aesthetic problems in translating are closely related to aesthetic criteria. Knowledge of its features is conductive for us to do translation practice, evaluate the aesthetic constituents and reach a proper aesthetic judgment on the translated works.