An Aesthetic Probe Into The Translator's Imagery Thinking In E-C Translation Of Novels

The combination of literary aesthetics and translation theory is time-honored in the academic field of translation study both at home and abroad. Professor Liu Miqing points out in his book Introduction to the Translation Aesthetics that the intermarriage of translation and aesthetics is one of the important features of translation theories in China. The aesthetic value of translated works is so significant and counted as one of the referential standards when the translated texts and the translators are evaluated.As the major aesthetic subject in translation, the translator has a system of aesthetic consciousness which is inseparable from the translation process."The thinking activities play central and leading roles in the mental mechanism during translation". (Xiaohui 35)This thesis makes Li Liangmin's translation of The Yearling as the text material. Based on the theories about imagery thinking and relations between thinking and translation at home and abroad, this thesis attempts to analyze how the translator obtains, shares, and reproduces the beauty of the original text through imagery thinking. Liu Miqing's theories on the translator's aesthetic consciousness and Huang Zhonglian's dissertation about the imagery thinking and its creative role will be employed as the analytical framework. The systematic synthesis of relative theories and the analysis of typical examples relative to the imagery thinking not only give more proofs to the translator's dual identity, but highlight the important role the translator's imagery thinking plays in reproducing the beauty of the original text and finding a bridge between the writer and the readers.The Yearling, authored by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) and its Chinese versions are well received by the public and cast an enduring literary spell. However, they are still more or less ignored in China's literary world, especially in the academic world of translation study. As to this thesis, it is likely the first time and a good start to treat them as the objects of translation study.This thesis makes a new attempt to integrate the translator's system of aesthetic consciousness with the theory of aesthetic translation, and will be beneficial both to the translators'literature appreciation and their translation practice.