文学翻译的流派
IV. Contemporary Hermeneutics
1. Hans-Georg Gadamer
, Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutics is a develop-ment of the hermeneutics of his
teacher, Heidegger.
, Under the influence of Heidegger, German famous philosopher, Hans-Geog Gadamer,
developed hermeneutics into a systematical modern hermeneutics of philosophy. , He emphasized historicity and limitedness of theory, and pointed out understanding
made mean-ing subjective.
, For him, one could only interpret text from his perspective.
Hans-Georg Gadamer
, Meaning existed in language while understanding went on with language. , Language was the origin and end of hermeneutics research, but its openness and
transparence were limited, relative and temporary.
, Reader’s understanding changed as his reading advanced; therefore the final
understanding must be different from the initial.
, Though it was the final understanding, it would be different for different readers and in
different time, since text under hermeneutics was open and dynamic, not closed and
stationary.
, Interpreter faced a closed door behind which was a different road. , What he needed to do was open the door, choose his own roads, pass by many crosses,
and get to his destination
Gadamer asserts that methodical contemplation is opposite to experience and reflection. , We can reach the truth only by understanding or even mastering our experience. , Experience according to Gadamer isn’t fixed but rather changing and always indicating
new perspectives.
, The most important thing is to unfold what constitutes individual comprehension.
, Gadamer points out in this context that preju-dice is a (nonfixed) reflection of that
unfolding comprehension, and is not per se without value. Being alien to a particular
tradition is a condition of understanding.
, Gadamer points out that we can never step outside of our tradition; all we can do is try
to understand it.
, This further elaborates the idea of the hermeneutic circle.
Hermeneutics in sociology
, In sociology, hermeneutics means the interpretation and understand-ing of social events
by analyzing their meanings to the human participants and their culture. , It enjoyed prominence during the sixties and seventies, and differs from other
interpretative schools of sociology in that it emphasizes the importance of the content as
well as the form of any given social behavior.
central principle of hermeneutics
• It is only possible to grasp the meaning of an action or statement by relating it to the
whole discourse or world-view from which it originates
• For instance, putting a piece of paper in a box might be considered a meaningless action
unless put in the context of democratic elections, and the action of putting a ballot paper
in a box.
• One can frequently find reference to the 'hermeneutic circle': that is, relating the
whole to the part and the part to the whole.
• Hermeneutics in sociology was most heavily influenced by German philosopher
Hans-Georg Gadamer.
What is “Wahrheit und Methode” ?
, “Wahrheit und Methode” by Gadamer in 1960 argued that understanding was historical
and should be creative, not a passive copy.
Importance
, Disputes of later thought depended on this book. Initiated, and pushed to the summit by
Heidegger, modern philosophical hermeneutics became mature, and it was the resource
of many later thought.
Process of interpreting a text
, He describes the process of interpreting a text as the fusion of
one's own horizon with the horizon of the text.
Definition of horizon
, The totality of all that can be realized or thought about by a person at a given time in
history and in a particular culture.
Interpreter’s “prejudice”
, Interpreter’s “prejudice” was essential constituent of his understanding.
, As far as the meaning of a literary text was concerned, it was not sth that could be
extracted from the text but sth that depended on reader’s interpretation.
Importance to translation
, Gadamer’s view on “legitimate prejudice”, “fusion of horizons” gave the essence of
translation.
, He revealed the nature of translation, esp. literary translation and explained
translation phenomena, such as reinterpretation and misinterpretation.
, Gadamer’s generality, historic significance and creativity of understanding in historical
hermeneutics are equally important to translation theories.
, Language itself is medium of understanding while understanding goes on as
interpreting.
, Translation happens within two languages; therefore, it would be seen as the most
typical example of hermeneutics.
, Hermeneutical philosophers’ statement on translation is indispensable part of western
translation theory.
, There are a lot of scholars who do researches on translation from the perspective of
hermeneutics or draw on modern hermeneutic translation.
2. George Steiner
, Steiner is in fact a direct successor of Friedrich Schleiermacher in translation theory.
, Schleiermacher discusses the relations between language and thinking, while Steiner
carries forward Schleiermacher’s research and makes it a systematic hermeneutic
translation theory.
, His famous work “After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation” in 1975 makes a
study of translation theories and process systematically since 18th century and is
considered as monumental work in the research of contemporary western translation.
, Over the 30 years, the work has been republished over and over again which has brought
worldwide reputation for Steiner
, As the key advance of hermeneutics of translation, the book was said to be “the first
systematical investigation of the theory and process of translation since the 18th
century.”
, With Heidegger’s hermeneutical view as its foundation, Steiner advances that
“understanding as translation” and endows translation with a more extended
significance.
Hermeneutics of Translation
, In the book, Steiner described hermeneutics of translation as “the act of elicitation an
appropriative transfer of meaning.”
, Based on a conception of translation not as a science but as “an exact art”, Steiner saw
the process of translation as the hermeneutic motion which consisted of four stages --
initiative trust, aggression, incorporation, and reciprocity or restitution. , It is acknowledged that Steiner is a representative of hermeneutic school among
contemporary western linguistic and translation theorists
Purpose of the Author
, Influenced by Walter Benjamin and Hans-Georg-Gadamer, the translation theories in the
early 1960s returned to the problem that translation is understanding. , Steiner oppugned the concept of literal translation and liberal translation of traditional
translation theories and advanced re evaluating the role of translators and readers , He “attempts to map a new field, a new space for argument. ”
, Because “There had been no ordered or detailed attempt to locate translation at the
heart of human communication or to explore the ways in which the constraints on
translatability and the potentialities of transfer between languages engage, at the most
immediate and charged level, the philosophic enquiry into consciousness and into the
meaning of meaning.”
Decipher and Translate
, He said in After Babel
, “To understand is to decipher. To hear significance is to translate.
, Thus the essential structural and executive means and problems of the act of translation
are fully present in acts of speech, of writing, of pictorial encoding inside any given
language.”
, In the same way, readers are interpreting the translated versions when reading and
translators are interpreting the original when translating, therefore, it is absolutely
impossible for the translators to put all the meanings of the original into the translated
versions.
Structure of the Book
, In the book the author casts back history of linguistic studies in the west from the
ancient to modern times and applies philosophy, linguistics, poetics and cultural history
to the interpretation of language
Three Historical Periods
, In the first period, translation theory comes from the experience in translation and
“translators should not translate word for word” was popular.
, In the second period, translation theory was greatly influenced by linguistic philosophy
and the representative is Schleiermacher in the 19th century.
, The third period starts from the late1940s when some scholars analyze translation from
the perspective of linguistic theory and some devote themselves to the study of machine
translation.
How do you understand the word “Babel” in the book,
, Steiner says “although we ‘translate’ at every moment when speaking and receiving
signals in our own tongue, it is evident that translation in the larger and more habitual
sense arises when two languages meet.
, That there should be two different languages, that there should have been, at a rough
estimate, more than twenty thousand spoken on this small planet, is the
Babel-question.”
Chapter V
, Steiner illustrates the process of interpretation.
, According to Steiner, from understanding the original to expressing it in another
language, a translator experiences “the four-beat model of the hermeneutic motion in
the act of translation” .
, “‘initiative trust - aggression- incorporation - reciprocity or restitution’—makes no claim
to ‘theory’”
, The translator should trust that the original is meaningful or significant. , When understanding and expressing the original, the subjectivity of the translator will
inevitably “aggress” the original.
, The purpose of the “aggression” is to incorporate/ import.
, But in the process of incorporation/ import, the true quality of the source language is
lost, therefore, the fourth motion “restitution” is necessary, which is put at the last but it
should impenetrate the entire process of translation.
Fourth Motion
, Steiner thinks that “Each human language maps the world differently.
, There is life-giving compensation in the extreme grammatical complication of those
languages whose speakers dwell in material and social contexts of deprivation and
barrenness.”
, In the process, the translator will inevitably merge his own experience, cultural and
historical back ground with the original and make the translated version recreation of the
original.
Antoine Berman
, French translation theorist Antoine Berman’s “Translation and the Trials of the Foreign”
showed great influence of modern hermeneutics on translation theory.
, French translator, historian and theorist of translation.
, To be specific, he is a famous contemporary French theorist, Latin American literary and
German philosophical translator, famous for his consistent philosophical stand in the
field of translation.
, He insisted on excluding the ethnocentricity in translation and opposing naturalization by
means of deformation and recomposition.
How do you understand “the trials” here?
, One is that the target culture may experience the trials of the foreign when it deals with
foreign words and texts.
, The other is that the foreign texts may experience the trial of existence in the new
environment.
Main ideas in the article "Translation and the Trials of the Foreign"
, criticizes traditional translation for their inhibition of the foreign and their naturalization
, suggests that the aim of translation is just “accept the foreign as it is
, describes in detail the "deforming ten-dencies" inherent in the act of translation
, says that the system of textual deformation exists in every translated version and blocks
the acceptance of the foreign
Another term for the trials of the foreign
, the analytic of translation
Meaning
, two layers: one refers to the detailed analysis of deforming system as Descartes has done
, The other refers to psychoanalysis
Deforming system Analytic of translation
, the deforming system, which shows a series of tendencies or forces leading to translation
deviating from the original aim, is unconsciousness
, to find the forces with the scientific spirit of psychoanalysis
Analysis of deformation
paying attention to translated versions and hypertextual translations dominated by ethnocentricity and annexationism
Negative analysis
, no translator can avoid the influence of these forces, even if he doesn’t want to deform
or recompose the original. He sums up 12 deforming tendencies in translation
exemplified by translations from novels of Latin-America
Literal translation
, the translation on letter which means the range of signifying possibilities in the TL.
Berman thinks that an excellent translated version should show its respect to “the
foreign” of the linguistic cultures in the original.
Features of Berman
, combines the philosophical thinking and translation methods and has a style of his own Berman’s influence to Venuti
, Lawrence Venuti, an American translation theorist, has used Berman's concepts to write
a genealogy of translation in an Anglo-American context to introduce the "foreignizing"
strategy that is ignored in translation
Homework
, Presentation and an article on advantages and disadvantages of translation theory /ies
as well as in which way it can be improved, or it’s inspiration to us
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