A Comparison Of Two Chinese Versions Of David Copperfield Based On Berman's Theory

Translation criticism has arisen ever since there was translation practice.It is an essential link between translation theory and practice. Compared with the increasingly developing translation theory and practice, however, translation criticism remains a virgin field that need ploughing.Generally, translations were judged based on essentially stylistic criteria or according to translation methods used (literal or free, domesticating or foreignizing).The evaluator, very often a literary theorist or a translator, put great emphasis on the author or on the original text rather than on the target text. They did not follow explicit procedures. The key translation criticism criterion was "fidelity", which meant the target text should be faithful to the source text in every aspect.Therefore, generally speaking, traditional translation criticism was static and unilateral, rarely taking into account other factors during the process of translation.Translation criticism at that time was, to some extent, intuitive, sporadic, subjective and impressionistic. In light of this background, French translator and theorist Antoine Berman accomplished his ambitious work Pour une critique des traductions:John Donne (published in English as Toward a Translation Criticism:John Donne),intending to lay out the theoretical principles of translation criticism. Based on his own translation practice, Berman develops an original concept of "criticism of translation" and a methodology to anchor the practice of this criticism. He proposes the search for the translator in order to determine his or her "translating position", "translation project", and "translating horizon" for a productive criticism.This thesis provides a systematical introduction into Berman's translation criticism theory, and makes a comparison of two Chinese translated versions of David Copperfield, using the translation criticism methodology proposed by him in "Toward Translation Criticism:John Donne",published by Gallimard in 1995.Subsequent to the applications of the "possible analytical process", the thesis will further compare the two versions using the tools proposed by Berman in his essay "La traduction et la lettre ou l'auberge du lointain",in which he listed twelve deformation tendencies in translation.Through this detailed comparison of these two versions as well as the translators and their different backgrounds, the study aims at providing a relative systematic description of the two versions and analyzing the causes and features of the translations.This thesis consists of five chapters:The introduction briefly presents the significance and purpose of the study, and puts forward the framework of the thesis.Chapter two gives a general account of previous studies on Berman's theory as well as Chinese translations of David Copperfield; Chapter three expounds on Antoine Berman's theory of translation and translation criticism; Following Berman's theory, Chapter four analyzes the two translations, and probes into the factors which influence the translators'choice of translation strategies.Based on the comparison, the thesis points out that the two translated versions adopt different translating strategies, which are resulted from different social backgrounds and different translating intentions of the translators.The conclusion part of the thesis generalizes the main findings of this thesis and then points out the application of the study.