On The Models In Literary Translation Criticism

Translation criticism is an indispensable component of the translation course and plays an important role in promoting the development of the whole translation cause and the perfection of translation skills. Based on the analysis on the three main criticism models adopted nowadays, this thesis discusses the characteristics of translation criticism and the necessity of seeking for new criticism models fitting them from the perspective of modern hermeneutics.This thesis firstly makes a summary and analysis of the work done in the field of translation criticism in present China and points out that the work in this field, especially in literary translation criticism, is far from being satisfactory, either in the theoretical construction of translation criticism or in the achievements in practice, which can be seen from the quantity and quality of criticism works. Then it analyzes the possible reasons leading to this situation and holds that apart from people's negligence of translation criticism and their misunderstanding of the word "criticism", the most important reason is that translation criticism is still under the influence of the traditional translation criteria, especially the "faithfulness" criterion, and has no practicable criteria of its own.Afterwards this thesis analyzes the influence of the traditional translation criteria in translation criticism and points out that under the influence of the theory of knowledge, there exists a mono-dimensional and simplified tendency in people's way of thinking which makes people believe that there exists an "ideal translation" and they should try hard to find it out. As a result, the traditional translation criteria come into existence. As is reflected in translation criticism, there are mainly three criticism models: the author-centered traditional model, the text-centered equivalence model and the reader-centered reader-response model. This thesis analyzes the characteristics of these three models and points out that one defect that they share in common is that they cut the linkage between the elements in the chainof author-text-reader (translator), thus turns criticism into a monologue of one side. Further more, this thesis specifically analyzes the characteristics of the equivalence criticism model which is most widely adopted nowadays, on the basis of which it points out the misconception in its core-text-centeredness and the influence it exerts upon translation criticism.After a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics and defects of the above-mentioned three models, this thesis lays its pen from the perspective of modern hermeneutics which overthrows many traditional ideas in the theory of knowledge and renews people's knowledge on the nature of translation, and analyzes the enlightenment it gives to translation criticism. According to modern hermeneutics, there is no accurate corresponding relationship between language and object in the outside world, and literary language is even more metaphorical and ambiguous. Therefore, text cannot be a "faithful" reflection of the author's intention. Moreover, the meaning of the text is a dynamic product which comes out in the process of the reader's interpretation on the text. It is not definite and settled as people used to think, but there are "blanks" and "empty points" in them. In this case, translation is actually a dialogue between the translator and the author via the text, and translation criticism is a synthesis of several dialogues, thus it is a multi-dimensional dialogue. Based on this analysis, this thesis holds that the monologue-type criticism models adopted nowadays do not agree with the nature of translation criticism. So it is very necessary to probe new models that fit for the nature of translation criticism.Based on all these analyses, this thesis points out the several levels that should be taken into consideration in the practice of translation criticism and makes a glance in retrospect over the past efforts on the new criteria of translation in the translation circle and what they...