A Stylistic Perspective In Literary Translation

In the past half century, research in Linguistics has greatly benefited and promoted translation study. Modern translation theories have, drawing on all sound elements of traditional theories, broadened its research sphere into new fields for new approaches to dealing with translation. Among the various disciplines such as: applied linguistics, social linguistics, semantics, semiotics, aesthetics etc, stylistics, as an important discipline, has been integrated into the study of translation theories in Europe and America since 1960s. Stylistics is helpful in translation study because they share some common research objectives. Both emphasize how to conduct effective social communication with proper linguistic devices and both view style in a particular period and respect idiosyncratic style, agreeing that translation should vary in accordance with variations of styles. The adaptability of the translated text to the source text is given much attention to. Besides, concerns in stylistics, like the study of register, syntax, critical text analysis etc. are all of great importance in guiding translation practice.This thesis attempts to conduct a systematic study of literary stylistics which heavily involves modern linguistics and literary criticism to study literary translation with the major concern focused on style reproduction. Formal markers and non-formal markers of style will be discussed based on related linguistic theories and literary criticism theories. Poems, prose, dramas and novels will be more or less touched upon to illustrate the following points: the necessity and importance to retain the original style in translation, the methods to analyze theoriginal style in ST and to reproduce it in TL, the strategies involved in style translation. The thesis clearly argues that despite the difficulties, transplanting the original style in TL can greatly contribute to a faithful translation which retains the same artistic effect and literary flavor of ST.It must be pointed out that "style" is a very broad term. It is the characteristic manner of expression in a literary text by a particular writer, a combined result of his linguistic choices and his character. It is also influenced by many other factors such as a period of time. The style of a literary work is embodied in both the content and the language, and can reflect the literary taste and personal inclination of its author. It is an inalienable part of the artistic whole. The key point in style reproduction in literary translation is to retain the stylistic value carried in a certain expression when we translate it into another language.This thesis consists of six parts with the body of four chapters between an introduction and a conclusion.The introduction presents a brief survey of the theory of modern stylistics and explains the theme and structure of the thesis.Chapter one focuses on the definition of style, the translatability of style and the importance of style translation.Chapter two makes an attempt to prove the effectiveness of applying literary stylistics to literary translation or literary translation criticism.Chapter three adopts a multi-level linguistic approach to the stylistic analysis of literary text and, accordingly, how to reproduce the original style through the formal markers.Chapter four shifts focus to non-formal markers of style mainly from the literary criticism's point of view.The concluding part sums up the whole thesis by recapitulating the mainarguments, and makes some supplementary comments on style translation. It stresses the possibility and importance of retaining the original style despite the great difficulties.