A Study Of Dialect Translation In Ruined City Translated By Howard Goldblatt From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

In the second half of the 20 th century,George Steiner proposed the theory of hermeneutic motion which bonds a closer tie between the hermeneutics and the translation studies.It consists of four steps,namely,trust,aggression,incorporation and restitution,shifting the focus of translation studies from prescriptive researches such as the translation methods,translation criterion,etc to the study of the translation process that is viewed as a dynamic process influenced by diverse factors like the author,the source text,the translator,the reader,etc.which takes the hermeneutic translation theory to a new height and exert a great effect in translation studies.In the framework of the translation studies from the hermeneutic approach,this thesis carries out a research on the dialect in Jia Pingwa's Fei Du translated as the Ruined City by Goldblatt.This thesis studies the translation strategies and methods of the dialect translation in Ruined City on the aspect of trust,aggression,incorporation and restitution in the translation process and attempts to seek for Goldblatt's translation feature on the dialect translation in Ruined City.The descriptive research method is used in the researching process and the translation strategies such as domestication,foreignization and hybridity and the translation methods like literal translation,free translation,omission,liberal translation,explanation and rewriting,together with the translation feature of hybridity have been summarized.It is found that according to Goldblatt,firstly,Fei Du satisfied the western reader's expectation and was worthy to be translated.Then,Goldblatt intruded into the dialect in Fei Du with his language knowledge and cultural experience;meanwhile,he repeatedly rectified his pre-understanding by his acquaintance of the Chinese language,culture,Fei Du and Jia Pingwa's writing style.Afterwards,he alternatively incorporated the form and meaning of the dialect through different degrees of domestication,on the one hand,he adopted the domestication strategy so as to conform with the English norms and to facilitate the English reader's understanding;on the other hand,he employed the foreignization strategy to enrich the English expressions and to meet the reader's desire for foreignness.In effect,a complete domestication cannot be realized no matter how “natural” a translation is.That is to say,Goldblatt's dialect translation in Ruined City is typical of a hybrid translation.Hybridity is both a translation strategy and a translation result,which not only shows the respect for the intention of the author and embodies the fidelity to the source text but also takes the translator's subjectivity into account.Howard Goldblatt successfully rendered the dialect in Fei Du and it is hoped that this thesis can bring some illuminations to the dialect translation on the basis of the analysis of the translation strategies,methods and the feature of the dialect translation in Ruined City and make some contributions to the Chinese literature “going out” by researches of Goldblatt's option of the text and adoption of the translation strategies and methods.