On Limitations Of Translatability In Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Literary translation is far more than the mere transference of messages from one language to another. Numerous translators and translation theorists have voiced their understanding of literary translation, and come up with diverse principles. Some principles show apparent contradictions, for instance: Some people say that they prefer translations that read like an original text; some claim that a translation should read like a translation, instead of pretending to be an original production. The relevance theory gives this phenomenon a plausible explanation, which is that the link between different readerships and different translations lies in the principle of relevance. Different translation principles do reflect differences in what different readers consider to be relevant.Within the relevance-theoretic account of translation, translation is two rounds of ostensive-inferential communication, including the communication between the translator and the original writer and the communication between the translator and target readers; evidently, the translator plays a double role in this triangle relationship. Communication between the translator and the original writer involves the original text. The translator needs to interpret it by combining the content with the right, original writer-intended contextual assumptions and to infer the intended meaning. The next equally important stage is to convey his understanding to the target readers, to enable them to derive optimal relevance from the translated text. Therefore, the success of translation is to transfer the optimal relevance, that is, to enable the readers to derive the maximal contextual effects with minimal processing effort.Nevertheless, due to the tremendous differences in language and culture, the optimal relevance cannot be achieved in all translations; for instance, obstructions because of differences in writing system, usage, semantics, and culture and, very often, the misinterpretation of the translator may result in ineffective translation. In addition, viewed from the perspective of relevance theory, the limitations of translatability can be demonstrated by the distinction in cognitive environments between the target readers and the original ones, the relativity of contextual effects, the degrees of relevance and the asymmetrical responsibility of translators.Fortress Besieged is acclaimed as one of the greatest contemporary Chinese novels. Actually, the story plot is very simple, without much suspense. The novel is so highly praised because of its abundant cultural significances, stylistic excellence in employing satire and humor, and encyclopedic features and erudition. What is more, the "direct translation" (literal translation) method is extensively adopted in its English translation. The question whether the optimal relevance can be achieved in the translation of messages with unique Chinese features by direct translation needs a careful study. Therefore, the novel and its English version provide us a perfect case to study the limitations of translatability from the relevance point of view.The author of the thesis studies the limitations of translatability from three aspects, taking Fortress Besieged as an illustrative case. They are linguistics, culture, and the misinterpretation of the translators respectively. The study indicates that the optimal relevance may not be achieved due to various reasons and the limitations of translatability do exist.Based on the case study, the author of the paper holds that three solutions can be used to minimize the limitations of translatability, namely direct translation, indirect translation and the improvement of translators' skills and professional ethics.In conclusion, the author points out that direct translation should be given priority in the translation of relatively untranslatable messages with exotic features, which is determined by the purpose of literary translation. In addition, the author asserts that linguistic untranslatability seems to be more complicated to deal with than the cultural one, because something untranslatable now in culture will turn out to be translatable with the increase in intercultural communication and the development of globalization, and the linguistic features that distinguish one language from another intrinsically are absolutely untranslatable.