An Intertextual Approach To Literary Translation

Intertextuality refers to the relationship between different texts. Ever since it was first elaborated by Kristeva, intertextuality has been a much used term. In Kristeva's word,"every text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; every text is the absorption and transformation of other texts". It aims at exposing that the meaning of a text is not self-existent, but from its inter-texts and the whole socio-cultural knowledge system. Integrating translation with intertextuality theory is a new research area in translation studies. This area is also full of challenges for English-Chinese translation in that there are differences between the two languages and cultures.The Old Man and the Sea,a 27,000-word novel, tells vividly a superficially simple fishing story. Published in 1952, this novel earned Ernest Hemingway the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. As is known to all, the novel is a song of praise of heroism."A man can be destroyed but not defeated"has been the classic saying and the old man also has been the most typical and the most representative of the Hemingway's"tough guy". It is also well known for its simple language, affectionate dialogues, symbolism and the application of the iceberg theory. It is rather worthy of study from the perspective of intertextuality.This thesis aims at incorporating the intertextual theory into literary translation on both theoretical and practical aspects, thus testifying that intertextual theory can function as both epistemology and methodology to literary translation. It also hopes to provide a new perspective to the study of The Old Man and the Sea.As for the methodology, at least three methods are to be applied in this thesis. Firstly, the combination of the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis would be taken throughout this whole thesis. Secondly, the author even attempts to employ the computer software to conduct statistics on the word frequency in order to get a better idea on how intertextuality is embodied in the chosen work. Thirdly, the comparative method would be applied in the main body of this thesis too. In order to assist the research on the incorporation of the intertextuality theory into The Old Man and the Sea, the author makes a comparison of its four translating versions which were translated respectively by Hai Guan, Yu Guangzhong, Wu Lao and Li Xiyin.The author thus divides this thesis into five parts.Introduction gives a brief survey on research background and methodology as well as a brief introduction to the significance and the structure of the study.Chapter One makes a general review of the origin and development of intertextuality. Some important figures and their ideas are also introduced respectively in this chapter. Based on these reviews, the author would sort some important terms out and present the categorization of intertextuality.Chapter Two integrates the theory of intertextuality with translation in a broad view, extracting the enlightenments of intertextual theory on translation. The theory of intertextuality establishes a new intertextual relationship between the source text and the target text; highlights translators'subjectivity; uncovers the translating process from a new perspective thus unveiling the intertextual nature of translation activities; and offers a new theoretical support for the construction of translation studies.Chapter Three is the main body about recognizing and transferring of intertextual signs in the specific literary work The Old Man and the Sea. The author attempts to conduct the research according to the two forms of intertextuality: the passive intertextuality and the active one. On the translation of passive form of intertextuality, the author manages to transplant the idea of cohesion into the analysis of intertextual translation. While on the translation of active form of intertextuality, the author tries to respectively study the intertextual signs reflecting ideology, social culture and ecology. Then the author puts forward tentative translation strategies and requirements for the translator for dealing with intertextuality signs in E-C translation.The last part of the present thesis is the conclusion. The author holds that the research from perspective of intertextuality opens a new avenue into literary translation. The incorporation of intertextuality into literary translation can be viewed not only as epistemology but also as methodology. It is thus hoped that this study may serve as a starting point for future researches to extend the theory of intertextuality to translation from much broader and deeper view.