Understanding In Literary Translation: The Fusion Of The Horizon Of The Text And That Of The Translator

The activity of translation has a history almost as long as human history, and the study of which, developed with translation practice, has continued for hundreds of years and yielded rich results. Among the topics of research in translation studies, the relationship between the source text and the translator is one of great importance to the correct understanding of the source text, which is a pre-condition for translation. But for a long time, the study of the text and the study of the translator have been isolated. In the early period of translations study, the text was put in the first place and the subjectivity of the translator was forbidden. Later, the subjectivity of the translator was over-exaggerated and the determinateness of the text was neglected. The present study is a hermeneutic approach to the problem.Hermeneutics is a theory about understanding and interpretation of the text. Since the translator is first a reader and interpreter of the source text, hermeneutics can throw insight on his role in translation study. According to hermeneutics, the text is a dialectical unity of determinateness and openness. The translator's understanding of the text is a dialectical unity too. In other words, both the source text and the translator have their different horizons which interact with each other. There is a tension between them. When the two extremes of this tension get a balance, the text and the translator fuse with each other. The target text is the product of the fusion of the two horizons. Since the balance of this tension is not feasible in practice, the fusion of the two horizons has a variety of degrees.This thesis consists of four parts.The introduction raises the issue of the separation of the study of thesource text and the study of the translator in the understanding of the source text, and argues for the necessity of the integration of the two.Chapter One analyzes the horizon of the text. The text is a dialectical unity of the inner horizon and the outer horizon, i.e., a dialectical unity of determinateness and openness. The determinateness of the text restrains free disposal of the translator in understanding and interpreting, while the openness calls for the subjective creation of the translator to realize the potential meaning of the text.Chapter Two discusses the horizon of the translator. On the one hand, the translator has his subjectivity in his understanding of the text. This is due to his pre-understanding and the interpretative essence of the understanding process. On the other hand, his understanding has its objectivity. It is restrained by the objective contents of the text as well as the common grounds of human understanding.Chapter Three probes into the fusion of these two horizons. There is a tension between the text and the translator, and translation is a process of seeking the fusion of the two horizons. As total balance between the text and the translator is not possible, there are different degrees of fusion. No translation can exhaust all the potential meanings of the text and each translation is just the translator's tapping of part of the text based on his own pre-understandings.In conclusion, the thesis states that in the process of understanding, the text and the translator, each with their respective horizon, interact with each other and the target text is the product of the fusion of these two horizons.