Poetic Wisdom: On The English Translations Of Zhuangzi From The Perspective Of Myth-archetype Theory

Following the trend of "cultural turn" and "deconstructive paradigm", sometranslation theorists are currently calling for a return to translation studies proper,which involves both literariness and language in literary translation, translationcriticism is no exception. Translation criticism is indispensable to translation studies,serving as a medium to bridge theories and practices. Previous studies on translationcriticism usually stressed the comparison between the original text and the target one.This thesis introduces the myth-archetype theory into the studies on Zhuangzi, addinga "time" dimension to the existing three dimensions-content, form and style(Becauseit keeps traces of primitive myth, archetypes and archetypal images which require atime dimension). Based on myth-archetype theory, this thesis takes three Englishtranslations of Zhuangzi, namely Fung’s version (1931), Mair’s version(1994) andWang Rongpei’s version(1999) as illustrations. Through the interpretation of poeticwisdom, it can be found: Possessing its own distinctive characteristics, namelyintuition, affectivity, concreteness, imagination and creativity, translator’s poeticwisdom really contributes a lot to literary translation criticism. Being the onlylife-related initiative in translation, the translator turns out to be important in theestablishment of the translated literature. Therefore, translator’s poetic wisdomconstitutes the source of his/her subjectivity, and the manifestation of subjectivity isalso the revelation of his/her poetic wisdom. On this basis, the thesis analyzes both theexternal and internal constructive factors which exert enormous influence on thetranslator. Last but not least, the thesis indicates that during the evaluation ofmetaphorical literary works modeled on myth-archetypes, the conversion of foursystems in the thesis is the manifestation of translator’s poetic wisdom. The firstsystem is the linguistic sign system whose presentation is direct. Therefore, thetranslators are required to give full play to their artistic intuition, thus leading readersto appreciate the superficial features of the original text through visual and auditorysenses. The second one is the structural system, which is not only concerned with form,but also the theme. Creative structural arrangement can effectively convey thenarrative tension and deep significance of the original text. The third one is theaesthetic image system, which involves the application of various images andcharacterization. To understand this system, the translators are obliged to bring outtheir imagination as well as creativity, thus to embody the original author’s intention and the expression of personal feelings. The last one is the archetypal image system. Inthis respect, it is key to grasping the profound connotation of a literary work, whichrequires the translators giving full play to their knowledge and cultural memory. Thisthesis chooses several basic archetypes, namely the ring, tianjun and zhiqi, which unitethe scattered, abundant images underlying the text into an organic whole. It is hopedthat this research can offer some instructions to the present translation practices andstudies.