A Reflective Research Report On The E-C Translation Of Past Looking:Historical Imagination And The Rhetoric Of The Image (Chapter Two)

Visual culture research,which first started abroad,can be traced back to the 1913,when the concept of “visual culture” was explicitly put forward.The domestic research on visual culture first appeared in the late 1970 s,and the research mainly focused on the translation of western classics.This is a reflective research report based on the author's E-C translation of Chapter Two,“Picturing Cultural History”,of Past Looking: Historical Imagination and the Rhetoric of the Image,a visual culture work written by Michael Ann Holly.The book,Past Looking: Historical Imagination and the Rhetoric of the Image,is a theoretical study of the methodology of history.The author analyzes the problems which she has encountered during the process of translation and proposes corresponding solutions according to translation theories in this report.Firstly,the author briefly introduces the background of the translation task and the significance of the research;secondly,the author describes the content and features of the source text;then,the author elaborates the process of translation,including pre-translation preparation,proof-reading and polishing;the next part,as the major section of the reflective report,discusses in depth the problems that the author has encountered during the process of translation including the translation of art-related proper nouns,long sentences,and the transfer of cohesive devices;corresponding translation strategies for each problem are eventually proposed,such as “after the original”,“following the convention”,division,restructuring,reference of grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion;lastly,the author summarizes the translation task and concludes the insights that the author has acquired during the process.By reflecting on the translation practice,the author has strengthened her comprehension of the relevant theoretical knowledge and has formed a more profound cognition of certain significant translation strategies,which will be conductive to approaching any other future task of the similar kind.Besides,the tentative translation of this visual cultural work has offered the author preliminary knowledge and understanding of this academic field.The author hopes that this report could provide visual culture researchers as well as the translators of such texts with some references.