A Functional Perspective Of Translation Variation In Literary Translation

Translation variation has been ignored in translation studies for a long time mainly because "faithfulness" was considered to be the only orthodox criterion. The past few decades witnessed a development of inter-discipline studies. As a result, people were no longer satisfied with the discussion of literal transformation in translation, but shifted their focus to more dynamic factors, including the translator, the target reader and culture. Translation variation therefore received more and more attention. However, the current researches are mainly focused on minor variation and are mostly found in the field of applied translation, while marked variation in the literary field is seldom touched upon.Based on functional theories of translation and Reception Aesthetics, this thesis attempts to find out something common in marked variation in literary translation. A case study of Selected Master Pieces by Xiao Qian is conducted in Chapter Four. After analyzing Xiao Qian's Skopos, the target reader's horizon of expectations and cultural differences, it is concluded that translation variation can also be applied to the literary field. The translator should be allowed to make variations, even marked variations in order to achieve a particular purpose or reduce the reading and comprehension difficulty for the target reader provided that he has got a full understanding of the source text.