On Creativity Of The Translator In Literary Translations

This thesis is devoted to a systematic study of the translator's creativity in literary translations. Traditional translation theorists give priority to the source text and the original author. They regard translation as a process of language transference, and the mere task for the translator is to faithfully reproduce the meaning of the source text on the linguistic level. Since 1980s, the focus of translation studies has been shifted from the author-centered to text-centered aspect. In the translation practice, the translator gives scopes to his/her creativity due to various factors beyond linguistic concerns. In this attempt, emphasis will be put on the translator's creative abilities and strategic insights enabling him/her to play an active part in translation as a game of appropriate decision-making. The author of this thesis advocates the translator's creativity in translations and hopes to make a systematic study of this issue in theory and practice.The author firstly introduces the characteristics of literary translations in order to prove the necessity and feasibility of the translator's creativity. Then the author offers two theoretical backgrounds: hermeneutics and receptive aesthetics. In hermeneutics, the author puts emphasis on interpreters'"pre-understanding"and"dialogue"between interpreters and the original text; in receptive aesthetics, the author introduces two basic viewpoints:"indeterminacy"of meaning and"blank"of the text. Since every reader would come up with his/her own interpretation, the translator, as a special kind of reader, should concretize the text's"blank"in the translating process. Thus, the translator's creativity is necessary and feasible.In order to have a better understanding of the translator's creativity in literary translations, the author puts forward her own opinions after an introduction of the definitions and the nature of creativity. Without"novelty", re-translation will not be necessary; without"appropriateness", translation will not be satisfactory. Then the author also emphasizes the decisive role of the translator's inspiration. However, inspiration will not come by accident; it can be achieved only by possessing high requirements: such as world knowledge, ability to manipulate the mother tongue language, imaginative thinking and insight. Among these requirements, the author...