On Translation Of Cultural Images In Shen Congwen’s Novels Based On The Image-G Actualization Model

The translation model of “Image-Gestalt Actualization” proposed by Professor Jiang Qiuxia is focused on the translator’s subject position in translation,and the influence of psychological Gestalt theory on literary translation from the perspective of aesthetics.Under the guidance of Gestalt psychology,the process of literary translation is no longer a mechanical stimulus-response manner,but a schema translation model of“Reception of Source-language Text—Mental Map of Image-G—Formulation of Target-language Text”.In other words,the process of literary translation is not just a simple correspondence of words and sentences between two languages,but the translator’s overall reception and formulation of language information and aesthetic factors in the original.Based on the translation model,this thesis takes cultural images in Shen Congwen’s novels as the research object,and mainly discusses Jeffrey C.Kinkley’s translation by means of literature analysis and example-illustration.After the close reading of Shen Congwen’s original works and their corresponding versions of Jeffery C.Kinkley,this thesis manually screens out all the cultural images in the text and their related translation.Following Eugene Nida’s five classifications of culture,namely ecology,material culture,social culture,religious culture and linguistic culture,all images in this research will be divided into the ecological image,the material image,the social image,the religious image and the linguistic image.Subsequently,this thesis demonstrates the mental and linguistic image-G actualization process of Jeffery C.Kinkley in translating cultural images of Shen Congwen’s works by citing examples.Then the three types of gestalt actualization,including the preservation of image-G,the enhancement of image-G and the renewal of image-G,will be discussed.Finally,this thesis proposes suitable translation strategies and methods for various cultural images in original works,namely:1)When translating ecological and material images that do not conflict with the target language culture,we can adopt the gestalt preservation strategy.Specifically,literal translation method can be used and proper names can be added to supplement the relevant features of the original gestalt when necessary.2)When translating social and religious images with unobvious meanings in the original,unique ecological images,and linguistic images with weak intertextuality with the target language,the gestalt reinforcement strategy can be adopted.We can also use the method of interpretation and annotation to highlight their essential connotation as occasion requires.3)In the expression of the emotion and aesthetics of the original cultural image,image-G restructuring strategy can be adopted.This requires us to internalize the intertextuality experience of the original text,and get rid of the shackles of the literal meaning of the original text.4)For semantic vacancy of cultural images in the target language,the image-G accumulating strategy can be adopted to find similar expressions in the target language to supplement the gestalt image.Through the above research,this thesis makes clear that this image-G actualization model is also of positive significance for the translation of cultural images in novels,which can provide translators with effective new ideas of cultural image translation.