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

Studies of Western contemporary art history are experiencing the transition from traditional art history studies to new ones.Whereas the study of contemporary art history in China is comparatively slow.This thesis is a research report based on the first chapter of Past Looking: Historical Imagination and the Rhetoric of the Image,written by American professor,Michael Ann Holly.The book Past Looking: Historical Imagination and the Rhetoric of the Image is a theoretical study of historical methods that emphasizes the interaction between researchers and works.The research methods of the book are worth learning for the Chinese art history scholars and learners.This explains why the author chose this book for her translation practice.During the translating process,the author encountered many difficulties.Firstly,as far as the subject-art history is concerned;it is very hard for the author to understand the original text since this is completely an unfamiliar area to her.Secondly,from the syntactic perspective,a large number of clauses and passivevoiced sentences are used,which brings a lot of difficulties.Finally,in the original texts,there are many theories and theoretical statements in relation to art history and how to translate these art history theories.How to translate them needs close scrutiny.To guarantee the quality of translation,the author has accessed to a large number of texts in relation to art history study for reference,and made an in-depth study of the problems in the translation.Specifically,about the translation of the attributive clauses,the author adopts the methods of using as a pre-modifier,using as a post-modifier and using an adverbial clause to cater to the convention of Chinese language;for the English sentences with passive structures,in consideration of the Chinese language practice,the author mainly puts them into Chinese active-structured sentences,and only a few sentences are alternatively translated into Chinese passive-structured sentences with the addition of the word “ ? ”;about some transparent original art history theories,the author suggests the methods of literal translation,for the sake of retaining the style and form of the original text;and for some elusive theories,the author advices the method of paraphrasing,in order to help target language's readers understand these theories.It is the author's hope that this study will make contribution to the study of contemporary art history scholars and leaners of China,and provide some references for the translators of similar texts.