Imitation In Aesthetic Representation From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

Imitation is the basic means of aesthetic representation in translation aesthetics. It refersto the process in which translators creatively imitate the literary beauty as found in theoutward form, the inward structure, and the symbolic meaning of the original on the basis offaithful transfer of semantic content and idea of the original, so as to achieve dynamicequivalence in the aesthetic sense. The uniqueness of literary translation lies in the aestheticeffects it represents, which is also its aim. Aesthetic representation is the terminal of theaesthetic process of translation, in which the translator instills all his/her aestheticachievements into the target text before presenting them to target readers. As aesthetic subject,the translator is subject to the objective conditions of the aesthetic object in bringing into playhis/her subjective dynamics. This in turn determines the role of imitation as the basic meansof aesthetic representation.This thesis is meant to be a comprehensive study of imitation. It establishes acomparative model supported by theoretical study, and probes into the historical origins ofimitation and its object. According to Liu Miqing, there are three categories of imitation:SL-oriented imitation, TL-oriented imitation and dynamic imitation. Using this categorizationas the theoretical framework, the thesis conducts a comparative study of the two Chineseversions of Vanity Fair by Yang Bi and Peng Changjiang, to discuss the imitationphenomenon to represent the original beauty.Through the detailed analysis of the application of different kinds of imitation indifferent situations, and the evaluation of the resulted aesthetic effects, the thesis comes to thefollowing conclusions: Imitation is the basic cognitive activity in translation and thus thebasic means of aesthetic representation. It arises from people s cognitive instinct to project thesource text to the target text in translation. Instead of being mechanical copying, imitation isinherently creative and aims for the optimized aesthetic effect that is closest to the original. Infact it embodies the three guiding principles of aesthetic representation, of which it is a part:artistic imitation, artistic creation, and optimization. Each of the three kinds of imitation has its own advantages: SL-oriented imitation is apt to represent the defamiliarization devices orforegrounding devices of the original; TL-oriented imitation is apt to produce translationswith high readability and acceptability by making the best use of the target language; dynamicimitation combines the advantages of the previous two kinds and pursues imitation of theoriginal beauty at higher levels. As to which kind of imitation to be used, it is closely relatedto the translator s aesthetic ideal on one hand, and on the other, has to do with the specificcontext and texture of the original, as well as the difference of the activation of aestheticinformation between the two languages. The translator must, based on his/her understandingof the original aesthetic information, flexibly choose the fittest kind of imitation by takinginto consideration the above two factors.