The Translator's Role And Status In Literary Translation: From The Perspectives Of Hermeneutics And Skopos Theory

The issue of the translator's role and status has gradually attracted great attention of translation theorists with the introduction of various Western translation theories and the critical review of the Chinese translation tradition. The thesis, starting from the current studies of the translator's position at home and abroad and taking the constructive aspects of hermeneutics and Skopos theory as the base, is intended to be a systematic view of the role and status of the translator in literary translation.The thesis falls into five parts.Chapter one consists of the purpose of the thesis, the hypothesis and the constructive significance of the research.Chapter two is a brief introduction of the early views and the further exploration of the translator's role and status in China and the west. In this part, the linguistic approaches and literal versus free debate are introduced and their limitations are analyzed. In addition, the current research on the translator's creative treason and the translator's subjectivity are included in this part as the starting point of the further discussion.Chapter three is a transitional part connecting the critical review of the previous research and the rest of this thesis. In this chapter, the definition of literature, the features of language in literary works, the functions of literature, the process of literary translation are explained. From the analysis, this chapter is intended to show that rather than a passive translation machine, the translator plays a part in literary translation.Chapter four and five are the main parts of the thesis. In these two chapters, the main concepts of hermeneutics and Skopos theory are listed as the theoretical base of the thesis. In chapter four the constructive views of Schleiermacher, Heidegger, Gadamer and especially Steiner's translation hermeneutics are used to prove the initiative subjectivity the translator shows in the comprehension and expression stage.