Image Translation Viewed From Hermeneutics And Reception Aesthetics

The present thesis attempts to investigate the aesthetic reception of image translation based on the discussion of this complicated phenomenon from various layers by adopting the theory of hermeneutics, reception aesthetic and literary translation at home and abroad.Being the soul of poetry, image, through its terse diction, ushers readers into a vast imaginary space. Its essence consists not simply in a fusion of affection with scenes, but more in creating "image beyond image" , "ideas beyond speech" . They are adopted to display the poet' s subjective feelings and thoughts to transform the abstract and intangible ideas into concrete and graphic pictures for rich implications and strong artistic appeal.It is believed in this paper that the beauty of image comes from its fuzziness and indeterminacies, which leave enough space for readers to imagine, thus different translators may have different interpretations and concretizations with regard to the same image. And, because of different cultures, different thinking modes and aesthetic perceptions, translators of different cultural background may exhibit still wider differences in their interpretations and concretizations of the indeterminacies and blanks of the same image.According to the theories of Hermeneutics and reception aesthetics, one thousand readers will perceive Hamlet in one thousand different ways. By the same token, there will be one thousand interpretations of Hamlet in the minds of one thousand translators, because a translator must first be a reader, an insightful and critical reader. Nevertheless, no matter how many Hamlets there are, there is only one interpretation that is most faithful to the original text: Based on Hermeneutics and reception aesthetics, the author of the present thesis holds that the besttranslation of a piece of poetry is the one in which the image is perfectly retained, because the TL reader, during the process of reception, can obtain the best aesthetic experience or the aesthetic experience that is closest to the original image or imagery through the intact image. In so doing, readers are able to exercise their imagination in full swing through the vast imaginary space left by translators.The Tang poetry is a brilliant gem in literary works, abundant in vivid images and can evoke pictorial imagination. Image in the Tang poetry, as a very complex poetic phenomenon, is a kind of cultural symbol, including both the superficial form and the deep cultural content, but because of the clash of images between the two languages during interpretation and content in translating, sometimes loss and skew of the original image are inevitable, and it thus leaves little space of imagination for readers. In viewing of this, the author of the present thesis raises the probes into the issue of translating image.In this thesis, a systematic survey on the different views between China and the Western countries on image translation is stated at first. Then the author proceeds to make a comparison and contrast between Chinese culture and Western cultures based on Hermeneutics and aesthetics of reception. The openness of texts and the importance of the role of readers' participation are accentuated. The findings inspired by the theories are applied in illustrating the translation of the Tang poems, and Mr. Xu Yuan-chong' s 'three-level beauty' will be analyzed. Eventually, the author re-emphasizes the importance of the theories of hermeneutics and the aesthetics of reception. It is sincerely hoped that this thesis can serve as a bridge between the gap of Chinese and Western literary thought through the study of image.