An Analysis Of The Translation Of Poetry In The Story Of The Stone From The Perspective Of Gadamer's Hermeneutics

There was a “cultural turn” in translation studies in the second half the 20 th century. And the ultimate meaning of the original text has been questioned. Against such a backdrop, the application of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutic to translation studies was reasonable and successful.Hongloumeng, a masterpiece in Chinese classical literature, is of high literary and artistic value both in terms of its profound content and its various literary forms. And poetry was presented in its various forms by Cao Xueqin in Hongloumeng and played a very important role in it. Therefore, selecting poetry in Hongloumeng as research material could be more convincing.The thesis attempts through the analysis of Hawkes' s poetry translation in Hongloumeng from the perspective of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics to argue that it is the translator's legitimate prejudice that leads to the relevant success of Hawkes' s translation. While exploring the reason of the success of Hawkes' s version, the thesis also hopes to promote the discussion of translating Chinese classics beyond translating strategies and to offer some useful advices for the globalization of Chinese classical literature.In the first chapter of the thesis, previous studies about poetry translation in Hongloumeng and about philosophical hermeneutics and translation will be briefly introduced. The second chapter would reveal theoretical framework of the thesis, namely Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, with its three principles being focused. And the theory's relationship with translation studies will also be discussed. The third chapter is the body of the thesis with an introduction of poetry in Hongloumeng and Hawkes' s translation as a beginning. Three key principles of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics would be respectively used to analyze Hawkes' s translation of poetry in Hongloumeng. The significance and limitation of the thesis will be revealed in the last chapter.