Deviations In Literary Texts And Their Translation

Embracing the view that literary writers' well-conceived linguistic manipulation in its own right reifies "literariness" of texts deemed literary, and forms an essential part of literary content to be scrutinized in our understanding and interpretation of literary texts, this thesis intends to approach deviations in literary texts from stylistic and thematic dimensions instead of formal dimension only, with an aim to probe into this phenomenon for an appreciation of its total significance in literary texts and its proper translation.Setting out from Formalist tradition of literary study and adopting the explanatory concept and means of literary stylistics-tracing literary effects to their linguistic causes by stylistic analysis, this thesis finally come to locate the dual functions of deviations in literary texts: stylistic function as style marker and thematic function as a medium expressing implied thematic meanings. It is thus proposed in this thesis that literary translators, when translating deviations in literary texts, should strive for equivalence in "stylistic markedness" and "literary expressiveness" which is, as illustrated in this thesis, not only a functional equivalence between the functions deviations perform in source texts and target texts, but also a perceptional equivalence between source language readers and target language readers in perceiving deviations. In this thesis, elaboration on the phenomenon of deviations in literary texts and instantiation of their translation drawn from actually translated texts are intended to show the multifariousness of deviations in literary texts, to deepen literary translators' understanding of this phenomenon, and to demonstrate the close interrelation of deviations'deviant formal features to the functions they may assume in literary texts, thus pointing out the importance of achieving equivalence in "stylistic markedness" and "literary expressiveness" when translating them.When text-centered literary stylistics become weak in allying with literary translation study to guide literary translators to see those extra-textual factors that might come in to wield passive influences upon translators' sensitivity to, or their sound interpretation and translation of, deviations in literary texts, the thesis further its discussion in this regard by introducing Cook's "discourse deviation" theory. In light of the refreshing insights provided by Cook's theory, this thesis makes it clear that, in addition to text-centered study and analysis, literary translators may better their performance in translating deviations in literary texts by analyzing and understanding original .writers', source language readers' and target language readers' schemata, and more importantly, by incessant effort to enrich their schemata (including language, text and world schema).Though special emphasis has been given in this thesis only to one aspect of literary writers' skillful manipulation of language in literary texts, it is hoped that the stance the thesis holds toward deviations in literary texts from the perspective of literary translation would in a way help literary translators to realize the important role language form plays in literary texts, which will prove rewarding in their effort to reproduce the total literary and artistic significance of the original.