A Comparative Study Of Chinese Versions Of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

Translation is a process of understanding and expression. In this process, understanding is the acceptance of the original and expression is a kind of interpretation of the original, so translation is regarded as translating the meaning. On the other hand, hermeneutics, as a theory studying the understanding and interpretation of "meaning", provides an efficient perspective for translation studies, because any kind of translation, no matter whether it is literary or non-literary, is bound up with the understanding and explanation of the meaning of the source text. Thus, the nature and task of translation determines its close relation with hermeneutics.This thesis conducts a comparative study about the different Chinese versions of Tess of the D'Urbervilles written by the 19^th century British writer Thomas Hardy from the perspective of hermeneutics. The basic principles such as historical misunderstanding, cultural filtering, and prejudice and so on are applied to the analysis of the comparing of Chinese versions between Zhang Guruo's classic version and those of others like Sun Fali, Sun Zhili and Wu Di.It is concluded that (1) because of the historicality of understanding of human beings, the subject or the object to be interpreted is necessarily characterized with historicality with its own limitations and particularities. Therefore this thesis holds that the real understanding is not to avoid those limitations, but, with the development of history, to assess any translated versions in a historical way. (2) As soon as we come to this world, we are destined to embed ourselves with established history, culture, language and so on. This existence is treated as prejudice, a rightful prejudice, which makes interpreters more creative. This thesis believes that the openness of text definitely leads to the creativity of any interpretation, and it is emphasized that more than one translated version is necessary and significant. (3) Because of the distance of time and situation, the author and the interpreter can not share the same horizon. This thesis believes that cultural filtering is a direct result of the different horizons. What should be done for the interpreter is to get closer to the original meaning of the text.