Intentional Mistranslation From A Hermeneutics Perspective

"Faithfulness","equivalence"and the like have long been held as Holy Grail in both Chinese and Western translation theories. Orientated towards the source language, source text and the original author, the ultimate aim of translation is to seek a complete reproduction of the original meaning. And any translation that goes against the ever-going pursuit of equivalence is thus dismissed as"mistranslation", a label which suggests people's very attitude towards it, namely, to correct the mistakes against the only ultimate truth. This is just another manifestation of our losing battle to achieve a complete equivalence in translation.Starting with a definition of the"mistranslation"in our scope of discussion, this thesis points out that"mistranslation"here does not refer to the translator's language incompetence such as inadequate vocabulary and misused grammar rules, rather it is"intentional mistranslation", a free-will choice of the translator as an entity with due subjectivity.From a review of the traditional attitudes towards intentional mistranslation, it is clear that the unfavorable opinions of mistranslation boils down to the following views: regarding the source text as an absolute standard in judging a translation; regarding a literary text as a closed product; and regarding the translator as a subordinate, or even as a servant, to the original author. What this thesis is trying to point out, by employing some key concepts drawn from Gadamer's hermeneutics such as"prejudice","effective history"and"horizon", is that intentional mistranslation is inevitable in the process of"fusion of the horizons", and that intentional mistranslation does not equal the unrestricted translation where the translator has absolute freedom.In Chapter Two, through a general review of the development of hermeneutics, Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics in particular, the author attempts to approach intentional mistranslation from a different perspective. Gadamer holds that understanding is characterized by historicity and creativity. Therefore, when ushered into the field of translation, these ideas reveal that: (1) Translation features historicity,...