Theoretical Considerations On The Basic Modes Of Image Shift In Literary Translation

Literature is a kind of art which creates images to reflect the social life by the use of language. The image is indispensable to literature. The image we discuss in the thesis is an idea suggesting further meanings and association aroused in the readers' mind by the use of the language in literary works. The similarity and the numerous differences of Chinese culture and English culture result in the similarity and the differences of the images and their meanings in the two languages. In literary translation, whether the image is properly shifted directly decides the effect of the whole translation. There are four basic modes of image shift in literary translation: image maintenance, image replacement, image adding and image omission.In recent years, many scholars wrote essays about image shift in literary translation, such as Yue Jinsheng (1998), Lei Zhenrong(2001), Sanyou, Li Jing (2003) and Wu Yi (2003). The author of this thesis finds that, as to the modes of image shift, the previous essays just list them as the ways to deal with the image. Except for displaying several examples to illustrate them, few of the essays make any more analysis of the four modes. That is to say, up to now, the adaptability of each mode in translation practice lacks theoretical support. In translation practice, some translators take the modes for granted and adopt the modes groundlessly without asking why, and examples of improper handling of the image can be found in some translated texts.This thesis analyzes the necessity of image shift in literary translation from the perspective of the imagery feature of literary works. This thesis means to reflect on the four basic modes of image shift in the light of several translation theories such as Adaptation Theory, Skopos Theory and Cultural Vacancy with the purpose of providing the adaptability of the four modes with theoretical foundations. This thesis puts forward the principles of image shift and further studies the adaptability of the four modes in literary translation. The author believes that, this study will have a practical value in translation practice and it will also help to deepen people' understanding of the nature of translation.In order to further illustrate the adaptability of the four modes in literary translation, the examples of image shift selected from the English version of the Chinese novel Catkin Willow Flats by Liu Shaotang are analyzed.In brief, in order to deal with the image properly in literary translation, the translator should have a proper understanding of the referential meaning and pragmatic meaning of the original image and take the TL (target language) context, the SL (source language) context, the purpose of the translated text and the acceptable level of the target readers into consideration, and then make a correct choice among the four basic modes. Image maintenance applies when the image has the same pragmatic meaning and can arouse the same association in both SL and TL culture and when the image is unique to the SL culture but it needs to be kept in the translated text for the purpose of keeping the original cultural flavor and realizing cultural exchange. Image adding applies in the following situations: when the simple keep of the original image would mean nothing to target readers, an exposition is added to it in order to help target readers understand the pragmatic meaning of the image; in order to make the translated text more appropriate and vivid, more acceptable in the target context, images familiar to target readers can be added to the translated text. When the target equivalent of the original image arouse different association in the TL context and another target image has the same pragmatic meaning as the original one, image replacement is adopted in order to create a new unity of form and content. When the keep of the image would be difficult to understand or even be unacceptable to the target readers, adding exposition would make the translated text too lengthy and no target image can be used to replace it, image omission is adopted in order to convey its pragmatic meaning smoothly.The quality of translated texts will be improved greatly if the translator can use the four modes properly in literary translation practice.