A Study Of Chinese Translations Of King Lear From Deconstructionist Perspective

Deconstruction has had a great effect on such fields of humanity studies as philosophy, literature, arts, etc since it was born in the 1960s.Its influence on translation studies is especially remarkable .Macroscopically, deconstruction brings a pluralistic study method for translation studies. Under the influence of deconstruction, cultural construction school, Skopos translation school, and manipulation school came into being. Microscopically, the thesis is to elaborate the impact that deconstruction exerts on the translation studies and practice : 1)it illustrates the indeterminacy of meaning caused by synchronic and diachronic reading ; 2)it highlights"There's nothing outside context"; 3)it discloses that the characteristics of text , according to the theory ,are open and intertextual, namely, the ST and the TT intertextual and dependant on each other; the ST relies on the TT for survival and development ; 4) it results in the rethinking the relation between the translator and the author ,it further emphasizes the subjectivity of the translator.The author applies the theory of deconstruction to the comparative study of three Chinese versions of King Lear translated by Zhu Shenghao, Liang Shiqiu and Fang Ping: firstly, by analyzing the language form and meaning in both the translations and the original , the uncertainty of the interior and exterior of linguistic sign is found .This uncertainty of meaning gives birth to openness of the source text and different kinds of target texts ; secondly ,by probing into the causes of the defectiveness of three Chinese versions of King Lear viewed by structuralism in light of deconstruction and translators'respective strategies, the author believes that translator's subjectivity, translation purposes and historical context can't be ignored.On the basis of analysis in the thesis, it could be seen that different translators make different interpretations of King Lear, which gets the meanings of source text to experience differance. It is their translation versions that bring the source text to life. The author thinks that the three translators'respective strategies are justifiable from the deconstructionist perspective. In addition, we have found that deconstruction functions powerfully in the literary translation studies and provides guidance for literary translation.