(完整版)翻译理论书评(程思茜G13201039)
广东水利职业技术学院-座谈
Afterthoughts upon Bassnett’s
《Translation Studies》
In this new-born while
in-depth field of translation, a variety of
monographs、text books abound in this blooming,
glamorous garden, then
I choose one glistening
rose in full blossom----Translation Studies(the
third edition) as my favorite book to
undertake a report. The
writer---Susan
Bassnett is a well-known translation theorist
winning her
reputation all over the world and
celebrated for her tremendous, fruitful
translation monographs, translations and
compilations. Her research
range varies from
comparative literature, translation studies,
English
literature, dramatic productions to
the translation phenomena in
postcolonial
period. Besides, some of her seminal works
contributed to
the establishment and
development of translation, like Constructing
cultures: Essays on Literary Translation,
Comparative Literature: A
critical
Introduction, blaze the trail for the cultural
translation school.
And this book makes a name
for her proving to be one of her most
influential works.
This book consists of
four main parts: “Preface” to the third edition,
“Introduction”, “Contents” and “Conclusion”.
In the preface, Bassnett
elaborated upon the
cause, status quo and prospect of this discipline
and
also sketched the background knowledge.
Then, in the introduction part,
she pointed
out the pivotal goal of this book, which is an
attempt to
outline the scope of that
discipline, to give some indication of the kind of
work that has been done so far and to suggest
directions in which further
research is
needed. Most importantly, it is indeed a
discipline in its own
right: not merely a
minor branch of other disciplines. She also holds
that
translation study is one kind of
discipline deeply, firmly implanted in the
practice. So the combination of theory and
practice in this discipline is of
great value
and importance. After that, she used four research
atmospheres to construct the range of this
discipline: History of
Translation,
Translation in the TL culture, Translation and
Linguistics,
Translation and Poetics. The
“contents” part comprises three chapters:
central issues, history of translation,
specific problems of literary
translation. In
the first chapter, it touches upon issues like
Language and
culture, Types of translation,
Decoding and recoding, Problems of
equivalence, Loss and gain, etc. Bassnett
freed from the shackles of the
old, clichéd
debates on some issues, provided her new insight
into theses
issues. In the second chapter,
Bassnett cherished the history as thread to
give a comb of the different views in various
periods of western culture,
and pondered over
the effects and change of functions of
translation. It
covered periods from “The
Romans” to “The Renaissance” to “The
seventeenth, eighteenth centuries” until “The
twentieth century”. In the
last chapter, at
the beginning, she compared the close relationship
between theory and practice to that between
driver and mechanic. And
finally she suggested
that, in terms of a careful analysis of cases and
examples, translators would give rise to
different specific issues after
choosing
disparate translation criteria. She introduced
different
translation criteria in the process
of translating poetry, prose and dramatic
texts, cited some examples from original works
for our reference. In
“conclusion”, she
confessed that some other vast amount of material
was
left undiscussed, such as: machine
translation, cinematic texts, oral
translation
or interpreting; these are like fly in the
ointment. Above
mentioned is the general
outline of the whole book.
Actually, this
marks a significant milestone in the development
and
strengthening of this discipline. The
biggest contribution is that it
circumscribes
the basic research domain of translation study as
the
separate, independent discipline. It also
highlights that translation study
should focus
on the cultural level to have the whole meditation
upon
translation, which opens the door of
“cultural turn”. Secondly, this book
puts
forward some basic principles of cultural
translation school. Before,
the translation
field was overwhelmed with the linguistic
perspectives on
translation, to name just a
few, Nida’s “formal equivalence” and
“dynamic
equivalence”, Newmark’s “semantic and
communicative
translation”, Toury’s different
kinds of norms. It’s from this book that the
general structure and blueprint of cultural
translation school has been
gradually
constructed. What’s more, she even expounded on
the basic
notions of this school in the first
edition of this book: A focus should be
pinned
on the historic, cultural background behind texts,
what criteria
decided translators’ strategies
in translation, and we should attempt at
recognizing how the complicated
process of controlling texts produced.
Thirdly, there are some minor while still
glittering lights cast upon
readers from the
book. It gives us a comparatively systematic line
of the
translation history in western culture.
Attention to “history” here means
not merely
the main translation principles, strategies in
different periods,
but also the cultural and
historic elements of SL and TL texts. Besides,
she might be courageous enough to challenge,
or even topple down the
core principles of
“equivalence”, “fidelity”, “translatability” in
traditional
translation views, and regarded
the translation history, some other cultural
views as being set in the equal place with
linguistics. Maybe these radical
and audacious
views incurred criticism and doubts from other
translators
and theorists.
Every leaf has
two sides; this book is no exception. Since the
publication, this book has been leveled
criticism, suspicion from different
voices.
Generally, the structure of this book seems to be
general and
sweeping. It falls short of the
specific, systematic research methods and
doesn’t provide us with some instrumental
principles, methods, strategy
easily to be
practiced. So in some aspects, it doesn’t delve
into the
broader and deeper part of some
theories, just like a dragonfly skimming
the
water surface. In spite of her promotion of
combining the theory with
practice, in
translating poetry and dramatic texts, it’s
obvious there is a
lack of relevant theories
supporting the analysis of original works in
detail. More specifically, I was skeptical
about her defining of
equivalence in this
book: the first lays on an emphasis on the special
problems of semantics and on the transfer of
semantic transfer from SL to
TL, the second
explores the question of equivalence of literary
texts.
After contemplation, the doubts exist
in whether it’s scientific and overall.
Besides literary texts, other types of texts’
problems of equivalence seem
to be ignored.
Her two lines can’t cover the core nature of
equivalence,
not to mention, the gamut of it.
Then, the translation of dramatic texts
attracted my interests, esp. the principle of
“playability”. It indeed makes
huge progress
in that it moves away from adhering to the
original texts
too closely to focusing on the
performable aspects of texts. However,
after
considerate reading, problems loom large. There
seems to lack the
specific,
working principles or methods. And in the
practical translation
of dramatic texts, even
if there are setting criteria of “playability”,
they
will vary accompanied by the change of
different cultures, periods, text
types.
What’s worse, “playability” in translating
dramatic texts sometimes
fall victim to other
sides’ full advantages. So in the directors,
theatre
managers’ eyes, the SL texts were
anything but sacred, and were reshaped
according to very basic needs---the audience
expectations, size of
company, repertoire of
performers, limitation of time and space, etc. So
they reshaped the text actually in order to
satisfy their own benefits to
maximum, and
used the term as an excuse to exercise greater
liberties
with the text than convention
allowed. Bassnett herself also realized the
impossibility to exercise this “playability”,
as a result, after 1985, she
gave up the
“playability”, then began to run counter to her
former
theories in a series of papers, namely:
Ways through the Labyrinth:
Strategies and
Methods for Translating Theatre Texts; Translating
for the
theatre---Textual complexities;
Translating for the theatre: The Case
Against
Performability. She once admitted that
performability was
nothing but a human
illusion, finally vanishing into thin air in
reality. She
also considered other precious
elements in the performance part,
compensating
for the loss in the TT, for example, encoded
gestic moves,
kinesic, paralinguistic signs,
deictic units all play an indispensable role in
the performance of dramatic texts. So the
dramatic SL can be displayed
vividly in
fidelity by the use of these elements in the
actors’ part.
Differences in register
involving age, gender, social positions,
consistency in monologue should take priority
over an abstract,
individualistic notion of
performability. So all these encourage and force
her to abandon “playability” resolutely and
determinedly.
To sum up, this book, just like
a beam of sunshine, illuminates the
whole
translation field; also like a glistening pearl,
glitters incessantly to
eternity. Despite its
tiny weakness, its brilliant lights will never be
overshadowed, so it continues to exert
profound influence upon
generations after
generations who read it.
Afterthoughts upon Bassnett’s 《Translation
Studies》
In this new-born while in-depth field
of translation, a variety of
monographs、text
books abound in this blooming, glamorous garden,
then
I choose one glistening rose in full
blossom----Translation Studies(the
third
edition) as my favorite book to undertake a
report. The
writer---Susan Bassnett is a well-
known translation theorist winning her
reputation all over the world and celebrated
for her tremendous, fruitful
translation
monographs, translations and compilations. Her
research
range varies from comparative
literature, translation studies, English
literature, dramatic productions to the
translation phenomena in
postcolonial period.
Besides, some of her seminal works contributed to
the establishment and development of
translation, like Constructing
cultures:
Essays on Literary Translation, Comparative
Literature: A
critical Introduction, blaze the
trail for the cultural translation school.
And
this book makes a name for her proving to be one
of her most
influential works.
This book
consists of four main parts: “Preface” to the
third edition,
“Introduction”, “Contents” and
“Conclusion”. In the preface, Bassnett
elaborated upon the cause, status quo and
prospect of this discipline and
also sketched
the background knowledge. Then, in the
introduction part,
she pointed out the pivotal
goal of this book, which is an attempt to
outline the scope of that discipline, to give
some indication of the kind of
work that has
been done so far and to suggest directions in
which further
research is needed. Most
importantly, it is indeed a discipline in its own
right: not merely a minor branch of other
disciplines. She also holds that
translation
study is one kind of discipline deeply, firmly
implanted in the
practice. So the combination
of theory and practice in this discipline is of
great value and importance. After that, she
used four research
atmospheres to construct
the range of this discipline: History of
Translation, Translation in the TL culture,
Translation and Linguistics,
Translation and
Poetics. The “contents” part comprises three
chapters:
central issues, history of
translation, specific problems of literary
translation. In the first chapter, it touches
upon issues like Language and
culture, Types
of translation, Decoding and recoding, Problems of
equivalence, Loss and gain, etc.
Bassnett freed from the shackles of the
old,
clichéd debates on some issues, provided her new
insight into theses
issues. In the second
chapter, Bassnett cherished the history as thread
to
give a comb of the different views in
various periods of western culture,
and
pondered over the effects and change of functions
of translation. It
covered periods from “The
Romans” to “The Renaissance” to “The
seventeenth, eighteenth centuries” until “The
twentieth century”. In the
last chapter, at
the beginning, she compared the close relationship
between theory and practice to that between
driver and mechanic. And
finally she suggested
that, in terms of a careful analysis of cases and
examples, translators would give rise to
different specific issues after
choosing
disparate translation criteria. She introduced
different
translation criteria in the process
of translating poetry, prose and dramatic
texts, cited some examples from original works
for our reference. In
“conclusion”, she
confessed that some other vast amount of material
was
left undiscussed, such as: machine
translation, cinematic texts, oral
translation
or interpreting; these are like fly in the
ointment. Above
mentioned is the general
outline of the whole book.
Actually, this
marks a significant milestone in the development
and
strengthening of this discipline. The
biggest contribution is that it
circumscribes
the basic research domain of translation study as
the
separate, independent discipline. It also
highlights that translation study
should focus
on the cultural level to have the whole meditation
upon
translation, which opens the door of
“cultural turn”. Secondly, this book
puts
forward some basic principles of cultural
translation school. Before,
the translation
field was overwhelmed with the linguistic
perspectives on
translation, to name just a
few, Nida’s “formal equivalence” and
“dynamic
equivalence”, Newmark’s “semantic and
communicative
translation”, Toury’s different
kinds of norms. It’s from this book that the
general structure and blueprint of cultural
translation school has been
gradually
constructed. What’s more, she even expounded on
the basic
notions of this school in the first
edition of this book: A focus should be
pinned
on the historic, cultural background behind texts,
what criteria
decided translators’ strategies
in translation, and we should attempt at
recognizing how the complicated
process of controlling texts produced.
Thirdly, there are some minor while still
glittering lights cast upon
readers from the
book. It gives us a comparatively systematic line
of the
translation history in western culture.
Attention to “history” here means
not merely
the main translation principles, strategies in
different periods,
but also the cultural and
historic elements of SL and TL texts. Besides,
she might be courageous enough to challenge,
or even topple down the
core principles of
“equivalence”, “fidelity”, “translatability” in
traditional
translation views, and regarded
the translation history, some other cultural
views as being set in the equal place with
linguistics. Maybe these radical
and audacious
views incurred criticism and doubts from other
translators
and theorists.
Every leaf has
two sides; this book is no exception. Since the
publication, this book has been leveled
criticism, suspicion from different
voices.
Generally, the structure of this book seems to be
general and
sweeping. It falls short of the
specific, systematic research methods and
doesn’t provide us with some instrumental
principles, methods, strategy
easily to be
practiced. So in some aspects, it doesn’t delve
into the
broader and deeper part of some
theories, just like a dragonfly skimming
the
water surface. In spite of her promotion of
combining the theory with
practice, in
translating poetry and dramatic texts, it’s
obvious there is a
lack of relevant theories
supporting the analysis of original works in
detail. More specifically, I was skeptical
about her defining of
equivalence in this
book: the first lays on an emphasis on the special
problems of semantics and on the transfer of
semantic transfer from SL to
TL, the second
explores the question of equivalence of literary
texts.
After contemplation, the doubts exist
in whether it’s scientific and overall.
Besides literary texts, other types of texts’
problems of equivalence seem
to be ignored.
Her two lines can’t cover the core nature of
equivalence,
not to mention, the gamut of it.
Then, the translation of dramatic texts
attracted my interests, esp. the principle of
“playability”. It indeed makes
huge progress
in that it moves away from adhering to the
original texts
too closely to focusing on the
performable aspects of texts. However,
after
considerate reading, problems loom large. There
seems to lack the
specific,
working principles or methods. And in the
practical translation
of dramatic texts, even
if there are setting criteria of “playability”,
they
will vary accompanied by the change of
different cultures, periods, text
types.
What’s worse, “playability” in translating
dramatic texts sometimes
fall victim to other
sides’ full advantages. So in the directors,
theatre
managers’ eyes, the SL texts were
anything but sacred, and were reshaped
according to very basic needs---the audience
expectations, size of
company, repertoire of
performers, limitation of time and space, etc. So
they reshaped the text actually in order to
satisfy their own benefits to
maximum, and
used the term as an excuse to exercise greater
liberties
with the text than convention
allowed. Bassnett herself also realized the
impossibility to exercise this “playability”,
as a result, after 1985, she
gave up the
“playability”, then began to run counter to her
former
theories in a series of papers, namely:
Ways through the Labyrinth:
Strategies and
Methods for Translating Theatre Texts; Translating
for the
theatre---Textual complexities;
Translating for the theatre: The Case
Against
Performability. She once admitted that
performability was
nothing but a human
illusion, finally vanishing into thin air in
reality. She
also considered other precious
elements in the performance part,
compensating
for the loss in the TT, for example, encoded
gestic moves,
kinesic, paralinguistic signs,
deictic units all play an indispensable role in
the performance of dramatic texts. So the
dramatic SL can be displayed
vividly in
fidelity by the use of these elements in the
actors’ part.
Differences in register
involving age, gender, social positions,
consistency in monologue should take priority
over an abstract,
individualistic notion of
performability. So all these encourage and force
her to abandon “playability” resolutely and
determinedly.
To sum up, this book, just like
a beam of sunshine, illuminates the
whole
translation field; also like a glistening pearl,
glitters incessantly to
eternity. Despite its
tiny weakness, its brilliant lights will never be
overshadowed, so it continues to exert
profound influence upon
generations after
generations who read it.