On Yang Bi's Translation Of Vanity Fair: An Aesthetic Perspective

Since ancient times, Aesthetics has been in close relation with Chinese translation theory and has been of great significance to it, too. As for the Chinese people, language function is always inseparable from aesthetic judgments. Throughout the history, translators of generations have made great efforts in the development of Chinese translation theory, to promote the integration of Aesthetics and translation. Taking traditional Chinese aesthetic theory as the guidance and borrowing main theories from the Western Aesthetics, Professor Liu Miqing has developed contemporary Chinese Translation Aesthetics Theory. According to Professor Liu, literary translation is to use the target language to reproduce the aesthetic constitutes of the original works, therefore, there is naturally a process of aesthetic experience and aesthetic representation. Aesthetic representation performs as the core and ultimate goal of aesthetic activities.The Chinese version of Vanity Fair by Yang Bi, a unique and gorgeous flower in the field of translation, has been held great esteem ever since it was first published. Though decades went by, her translation has been believed to be in full flush of youth. Moreover, many people tend to quote beautiful lines from it here and there. Of course, others write articles to comment on it, too. However, most of those discussions focus on Yang Bi's translation techniques, or make an analysis on the lexical level. Its aesthetic value is seldom touched upon.For this reason, this thesis will, under the guidance of contemporary Translation Aesthetics, in particular, Liu Miqing's Translation Aesthetics Theory, conduct an analysis of the aesthetic representation in Yang Bi's translation of Vanity Fair in the aspects of literary beauty and artistic style. The analysis shows that Translation Aesthetics Theory plays an important role in guiding literature translation. The original author and the translator of Vanity Fair lived in different cultures. With her background of Chinese culture and traditional aesthetic views, Yang Bi was definitely influenced by her own aesthetic structure and thoughts. Professor Liu's theory is based on the psychological mechanism in aesthetic activities, to explain how to achieve aesthetic representation in translation. Therefore, it is very appropriate to have professor Liu's translation theories applied in this case study.With a full understanding of the original work, by taking advantage of her profound Chinese language attainments, Yang Bi produces a wonderful translation of Vanity Fair, which is natural and smooth. Her version of Vanity Fair not only presents us with a perfect example of aesthetic representation of literary translation, but also shows her greatest accomplishment in translation. A great number of examples in her translation are worthy of exploring and studying.