| The Scarlet Letter is the masterpiece of the19th century outstanding novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne strove to show the symbolic meaning of things. With the usage of the Symbols the novel becomes rich in implication and infection. Hawthorne is considered one of the ancestors of Symbolism.Symbolism is rich in charm in eastern and western literature, and the processing of symbolism in translating is of many forms. But in any circumstances the processing of symbolism is processing of image schema. Image is an object image we get by imagination and Schema refers to the cognitive structure organized and processed from the experience and information which can be stored in memory forever. Thus Image schema is the process and result brains filter, work, integrate, induce and abstract life experiences. In other words translation is the process of migration of image schema:In the source text, translator analyzes the symbolism technique and forms the schema in the brain, which is the decoding process; the translator then encodes the schema in the target language. Due to the similarity of human mind, some symbolism techniques are easy for translators to deal with and easy for TL readers to accept. But there exists other circumstances, just like in The Scarlet Letter the meaning of the symbolism has to be conveyed to the TL readers through various processing methods by the translator.The development of Image schema theory brings significant influence on translation study. The image schema is divided into three categories:language schema, content schema and cultural schema. And in the process there are always circumstances of correspondence or non-correspondence, namely schema correspondence, schema conflict and schema default. The processing of the first circumstance is much easier in dealing with symbolism. Based on the processing of symbolism in translation, this thesis draws up the methods below:literal translation, explanation in the text, literal translation with note, liberal translation and supplementary explanation in the preface of the translation is also used.The description of the symbolism processing in the process of translating a novel has never been done before. This thesis tries to make description through comparison among three Chinese versions of their methods. With the help of "Truth-seeking-Utility-attaining" Evaluative Model of Continuum proposed by Professor Zhou Lingshun, this thesis manages to make a description in this way:not only factors which influence the processing of symbolism by the text itself, but also the "extra-translation" factors are considered. Thus a relatively all-sided description and evaluation of the translator behavior of "Truth-seeking" or "Utility-attaining" goal can be acquired.The thesis is composed of6chapters:Chapter One introduces the research background and the significance of the thesis, and the theories used.Chapter Two is the literature review. At first is the literature review of image schema theory, mainly about the definition of image schema, the content of the theory and the development of the theory. Next is the introduction of symbolism technique in literature, and at last the close relation between image schema theory and symbolism technique will be discussed.Chapter Three we will explain the current situation of translation study combined with image schema theory, and we further explain the processing of symbolism in translation. At the end of the chapter a brief introduction of the symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is given.Chapter Four is a contrastive study of the three Chinese versions, in this chapter the processing of symbolism under various circumstances is introduced, and the methods of different translators are compared.Chapter Five is objective description of the translator behavior of the three translators under the "Truth-seeking-Utility-attaining" Evaluative Model of Continuum through the contrastive study made between these three versions.Chapter Six is the conclusion of the thesis. |
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