A Study On Aesthetic Representation In Howard Goldblatt’s English Translation Of Liu Shi From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

Aesthetics has a long history. The combination of aesthetics and translation has provided a new perspective and a good platform for the study in translation especially in literature translation. From ancient to now, scholars abroad and at home have done abundant researches on translation aesthetics which is becoming increasingly mature.As a prolific and varied writer in modern Chinese literature world, Wang Anyi is one of the representatives among contemporary Chinese woman writers and she is the winner of The Fifth Mao Dun Literature Prize. Her novels gain much attention. Lapse of Time is one representative novella of Wang Anyi which was published in1982and got the National Award for best novella of1981-1982. However, studies on Lapse of Time mainly focus on its style, writing techniques, Shanghai complex and factors related to the feminist literature without paying attention to its English versions. So far, there are only three articles that can be found.Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the aesthetic representation of the translated work---Lapse of time by Howard Goldblatt under the guidance of Professor LiuMiqing’s theory. Since the aesthetic representation is to reproduce the beauty of the source text, the analysis of the aesthetic values is based on the aesthetic elements of the source text which can be divided into two systems, namely the formal system and the non-formal system. The famous and experienced translator, Howard Goldblatt, views that: translation is compromise of fidelity and creativity; translation is betrayal; translation is rewriting; translation is cross-cultural communication. On account of this, this paper will make a detailed analysis on the translation thoughts that the translator observed and the translation strategies and methods that the translator adopted in order to reproduce the aesthetic elements of the original text.There are six chapters in this paper. Chapter One offers an introduction on the research background, research significance and the structure of the research paper. Chapter Two provides a summary of the studies on translation aesthetics abroad and at home at all times as well as a review on the research done on the translation of Lapse of Time. Then some definitions of translation aesthetics will be introduced and their contents will de illustrated in Chapter Three. Chapter Four provides a brief introduction to Wang Anyi and her works as well as Howard Goldblatt and his views on translation. Chapter Five is the most important part of the thesis, in which detailed analysis will be done on Howard Goldblatt’s version to figure out how the translator represents the beauty of the source text when translating as well as the translation thoughts he has followed. Chapter six draws the conclusion based on the above analysis. The author hopes that this study can enrich studies on translation aesthetics in the field of literary translation, provide literary translators inspiration and give rise to more scholars’ interest in this field.