On Intermediate Translation In Literature From The Perspective Of Berman's Theory Of Literary Translation Criticism

The Czech French writer Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of the greatest novels of the 20 th century,and it firmly established his position as the greatest writer alive in the world.It has undergone two intermediate translations in two different periods in China,making it an event that cannot be ignored in the history of modern Chinese translation.To study intermediate translation requires a scientific system of translation criticism methods for a comprehensive analysis of the translator and the translated work.Antoine Berman,French translation practitioner and theorist,once suggested in his Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne that the pivot of translation criticism lies in the subject of translation,so when we are doing translation criticism researches,we should consider who is the translator.According to Berman's theory,it is necessary to consider the translator's translation position,translation project and translator's horizon while conducting translation studies.This thesis employs Antoine Berman's translation criticism theory to discuss the two intermediate translation activities of The Unbearable Lightness of Being in China.By applying descriptive methods and starting from specific social cultures,it analyzes the reasons why Han Shaogong and Xu Jun translated the novel,their respective strategies and attitudes of translation,and their choices of the original versions.It further explores the phenomenon and reasons for intermediate translation after 1976 with the purpose of providing new directions for translation studies.According to the study,in terms of the translation position,different motives and identities of the translators have led them to hold different translation views and strategies.In terms of the translation project,the two Chinese versions have been translated through different source texts.The differences between an individual activity and an organized activity have left non-negligible influences on translation.In terms of translator's horizons,the different literary,cultural,and historical factors as a result of the two translators' historical background have helped to form different horizons of translation,which in turn have exerted influence upon their translating.Meanwhile,an analysis of the intermediate translation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being shows that since China's accession to the Berne Convention in 1992,the intermediate translation in China is noteworthy for the following features: translation activities are no longer an individual behavior,but are organized by publishing houses;translators are generally guided by professional theory and practice;readers are less tolerable to intermediate translation;the intermediate translation occurs only in the translation of works written in non-general languages;intermediaries are more reliable.As a perpetual translation phenomenon,translation is worthy of scholars' attention and research.