A Tentative Study Of English-Chinese Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Writing

This thesis aims at presenting an analysis of the process of English to Chinese literary translation from the perspective of writing by employing the writing theory advanced by Zhou Jichang and the language character theory proposed by Gao Jian.There exist two linguistic versions for many of Lin Yutang's early writings, and most of the Chinese versions are translated by the writer himself from English versions. The effect of these translations is exceptionally excellent. This rare phenomenon of self-translation inspires the conception of writing translation (Actually, this term is coined by my supervisor, Professor Yang Shizhuo): it would be beneficial to the preservation of artistic and aesthetic value of the source text if the translator treats the translation as writing.According to Zhou Jichang's writing theory, the process of writing can be divided into three phases: perception, thought operation and expression. Perception is a phase in which the writer forms a perceptual cognition of the target of writing; thought operation is a phase in which the writer conceives the whole and parts of the work to be written; expression is an activity to transform the fruit of the writer's mental labor into letters. If the translator follows these three phases in translation activities, he can grasp the work as a whole and carry out overall planning. It needs to be pointed out that, owing to the dissimilarities between Chinese and English thought patterns, literal expression of each nationality are accordingly quite different. Together with language character theory proposed by Gao Jian, we can deduce the expression preference of each nationality. With the deduction in mind, the translator's use of target language would be more idiomatic.Chinese literature always regards literary grace as the standard to evaluate an article or work, and since the research scope of this thesis is English to Chinese literary translation, which not only requires the preciseness of the meaning, but also the preservation of artistic and aesthetical value of the source text, so it would be better if the translator can inject "Wenqi" (文气) into the target text and use the idiomatic Chinese to deliver the meaning of the source text precisely. The four-character structure (四字格), classical Chinese (文言) and function words (虚词) are all powerful devices to represent Chinese literary grace. With appropriate application of these devices, the target texts are likely to become translated literature.At last, this thesis carries an overview of the translation practices of many Chinese writers. Compared with common professional translators, they show many advantages in translation, such as their comprehension of the source text and their command of the target language. Therefore, the thesis emphasizes the importance of writing attainments for a translator.