A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Pride And Prejudice: From The Perspective Of Gadamer's Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is a theory that explores the understanding and interpretation of the meaning, which became familiar to the west in the 1960s. The development of it from the traditional hermeneutics, which began with the translation of the Bible, gradually to modern philosophical hermeneutics by Han-Georg Gadamer has undergone a long process.In Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, the notions such as "the historicity of understanding", "prejudice", and "fusion of horizon" are of great significance to translation study. They provide some new perspectives for translation study. "Understanding" is the premise of interpretation. Translation, whatever kind it may be, all relates to understanding and interpretation about the source text. To Gadamer, understanding is somewhat historical, which results in the misunderstanding or prejudice of the text. Philosophical hermeneutics abandons excessive pursuit of the meaning in the original text in the traditional hermeneutics; however, it pays more attention to the historicity of understanding, which makes the original text and the interpreter have their own "horizon". Therefore, understanding is the superposition of the horizon in the ST and in the interpreter, which is entitled "fusion of horizons" by Gadamer.There exists an intrinsic relationship between hermeneutics and literary translation studies. Translation studies from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics free themselves from the traditional principles and the pursuit of the only "standard" translation and provide a new insight into translation studies. According to Gadamer's hermeneutics, literary translation can be considered as an interpretation, which extends in the whole process of translation. Literary works and translators have their own horizons. The translators of different times understand and translate the works from their own horizons (including language, culture, etc.), hence diversifying the interpretation. From this point of view, literary translation process is a fusion of horizons as well as a process of interpretation. Pride and Prejudice, one of the best known and best loved English novels written by Jane Austin, has been translated by many translators. The author chooses two of the versions: one is translated by Wang Keyi and the other by Sun Zhili. Wang Keyi and Sun Zhili are under different historical backgrounds and their versions definitely have unique features because of translator's subjectivity. This thesis tries to analyze and make researches on the two Chinese versions translated by Wang Keyi and Sun Zhili from the perspective of Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical Hermeneutics.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction, which makes brief illustration on the research background, significance of the study, and research methods of the thesis. Chapter Two is the theoretical framework, which expounds the relationship between translation and hermeneutics, including a retrospect of the developments of hermeneutics and an introduction to some key concepts in Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, besides that, the intrinsic relationship between literary translation and hermeneutics is also set forth. Chapter Three gives a brief account of Jane Austin, the themes and characteristics of Pride and Prejudice as well as the two Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice. Chapter Four, the body of the thesis, makes a comparative study of the two translated versions in the light of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics from the perspective of "historicity of understanding", "prejudice" and "fusion of horizons". Chapter Five, the concluding part, makes a summary of the thesis, in which the author proposes that different historical times and different cultural backgrounds can produce different translations of the same piece of work, which should not be judged purely by the right-or-wrong standard. In order to come closer to the true meaning of the source text, the translator is required to endeavor to extend his or her shared horizon and eradicate the negative prejudices so that he or she can reach the maximum of "fusion of horizons" between the author, the translator and the target reader.