E-C/C-E Literary Translation In The Light Of Intertextual Theory

Intertextuality is an important term in contemporary literary criticism. It is also one of the seven characteristics of text (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, and intertextuality). Intertextual theory is theory mainly on text decoding, and also text encoding in Bloom's theoretical elaboration. Literary translation involves both encoding and decoding of literary texts. Therefore it is helpful and feasible to apply intertextual theory to the study of literary translation.The great difference between Chinese and English intertextual networks makes intertextuality one of the most thorny problems in E-C / C-E literary translation. Enlightened by intertextual theory, this study is an attempt to probe into intertextuality in literary translation.The aim of this thesis is to explore into the nature of the activity of literary translation, to discover the relationship between source and target text, and to deal with intertextuality in E-C / C-E literary translation.The introduction gives a general survey of intertextual theory and translation studies.Chapter One traces the origin and development of intertextual theory. Saussure and Bakhtin's impetus, Kristeva's coin of the term, Barthes, Genette, Riffaterre, Foucault, Bloom, and Culler's contributions to the theory are all briefly introduced. In addition, Hatim & Mason's research into intertextuality and translation is also introduced in this chapter. This chapter constitutes the theoretical basis of the thesis.Chapter Two argues, after demonstrating that both literary writing and literary reading are intertextual activities, that literary translating is aspecial intertextual activity since it deals with at least two intertextual networks besides involving both literary reading and literary writing.Chapter Three explores into the relationship between source and target texts. It firstly re-examines the equivalent-effect principle. Refuting the two famous arguments given by equivalent-effect proponents, the thesis maintains that the principle is not applicable to literary translation. Translating takes the source text as its starting point and the target text as its destination. The thesis then argues that the target text is only a special intertext for its source text by demonstrating the difference between pretexts and architexts of different literary intertextual networks.Chapter Four brings to the fore the principle of translation adequacy. Adopting the two notions of domestication and foreignization as translation strategies, this chapter explores into the procedures for treating intertextual signals, which typically present the intertextual aspect of language signs, asserting the four procedures in order of importance: retaining semiotic status, retaining intentionality, retaining informational purport, and preserving linguistic devices. Then it suggests several applicable methods with examples for adequate treatment of intertextual signals: correspondence, modulation, literal translation with contextual amplification, literal translation with footnoting, generalization, and paraphrasing.Chapter Two and Three demonstrate the epistemological significance of applying intertextual theory into literary translation and Chapter Four its methodological aspect.In conclusion, the thesis asserts that intertextual theory shows us a way out of the narrow confines of traditional literary translation studies and broadens our vision of the research in literary translation.