On The Visibility Of Translators' Style

The study of style has long been an important issue in literary translation studies. At present the study of style centers on the original style as well as style translation, namely the original style should be fully reproduced. And translators' style has seldom been concerned with, the negation of which results from the restriction of traditional translation theories, the source-text-oriented theories, which describe translation as bilingual transference and advocate translators' invisibility, and naturally they disregard translators' subjectivity as well as creativity and inhibit translators from demonstrating their styles.But actually it is proved by translation practice that translators unavoidably make their styles visible in their products. Guided by Hermeneutics, the thesis explores the reason and room for the visibility of translators' style. The author of the thesis holds that translators can and will inevitably manifest their style in their products in the process of conveying the original style. Style can be defined as authors' preference of some linguistic usage to that of others. Literary translators are indispensable subjects in the translation process. They act not only as receptors and manipulators of the source text but producers of a target text in a new cultural system. In this sense they can be viewed as a special kind of authors, and consequently their style can be seen as a special kind of authorial style.Theoretically speaking, Hermeneutics confirms translators' creativity, for its basic notion is understanding means creative interpretation of a text. That is to say translators are not just passive receptors of the source text, but meaning-providers whose translation products will be interpreted by target readers. Translators' style isintricately associated with their pre-understanding i.e. pre-existing, which is possessed by every language user. Pre-understanding develops from social and cultural traditions that influence a person, one's ideology, life experience, literary cultivation and aesthetic taste etc.. Pre-understanding predisposes translators' individuality. It pervades translation process all through and affects their translation. Different translators having different pre-understanding and horizons, produce different "fusion of horizons" in the dynamic interaction with the source text and generate versions with diverse styles.From the perspective of translation practice, translation is an inter-lingual and inter-cultural communication activity, which provides essential room for the development of translators' style. First the discrepancies of the two linguistic systems concerned offer them much space to manipulate every level of language, namely lexis, syntax, and discourse. Then cultural differences of the two systems even supply more room for them to display their style. In brief, the two differences i.e. linguistic discrepancies and cultural differences contribute a stage for translators to exert creation and make their style visible.The visibility of translators' style can be studied in two cases: first, a translator will make his style visible when his style is similar to that of the author. In the process of reproducing the author's style, he displays his own style naturally; second, due to the cultural or linguistic differences a translator frequently resorts to adjustments and alteration, the style displayed in the adjusted place, which is usually distinct from the original style, demonstrates the translator's style.Based on the previous understanding, the thesis conducts a case study of Zhu Shenghao's translation of The Merchant of Venice, investigating his style manifested in his translation by means of a contrasted study. Zhu's style correlates with hispre-understanding. Since part of his pre-understanding is similar to that of Shakespeare such as poetic disposition, the aesthetic preference of elegance and the sense of humor, his style corresponds with that of the source text. Owning to the fact that he and Shakespeare are two different...