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[Looking Back on the Lost Spiritual Homeland: Myth – A Study of Literary Translation [回望失落的精神家园:神话—原型视阈中的文学翻译研究], Doctoral dissertation, English Language and Literature, Nankai University, Tianjin, China 2009 [application of Fromm’s theories to art].

  • 目前,译界在对>文化转向<和>解构范式<的反思之后,提出了回归本体、回归语言的呼吁,对于文学翻译研究而言,还要回归文学性。在这种回归的过程中,本研究将视角投向了语言和文学的本源——神话,试图将神话-原型理论引入文学翻译研究,通过回归本源、结构、共性和整体,在解构主义范式走入困境之后,为译学研究提供的一种新的建构策略。本研究是一项多学科的理论建构,有助于恢复译界对语言和文学的神性起源的崇拜,认识到差异中的共性和分裂中的秩序;通过关注文学翻译中的诗意性和身体感受,在目前过分张扬理性的译学传统和语境下,凸显文学翻译中的无意识成分,尤其对具有神话-原型特质的隐喻性文学作品的翻译批评具有一定的启示意义。本文主要遵循学源追溯—合理性论证—基本理论问题研究—翻译批评方法建构—典型译作评析的研究思路,形成由远及近、由理论向实践转化和落实的研究路径。神话和原型因其内在的紧密联系常常被相提并论,神话是原型的语言载体,原型是神话故事中稳定性成分的凝结,许多对原型的认识本身就是神话研究的成果。由于是将译界一直较少关注的神话.原型理论嫁接到文学翻译研究的初步探索,文章第一章对神话和原型的研究史做了一番简要的回顾与梳理,为后续的翻译理论研究提供必要的知识储备和理论铺垫。除了回顾已有学术成果的要点之外,本章也初步总结了翻译界目前与神话-原型理论相关的一些隐性研究,作为后文理论建构的基础和参照。在理清相关学源之后,第二章从哲学、语言、文学和文化四个方面为将神话-原型理论引入文学翻译研究提供了合理性论证。本章首先肯定了卡西尔通过引入神话思维重新确立了人文学科及其认识论基础的学术贡献;其次,阐述了弗莱关于语言的起源和演化与神话有着割舍不断的牵连的思想;再次,重申了弗莱的观点,即文学是置换变形的神话,文学创作是原型的置换变形;最后,强调神话是一种文化模式,认为这使得神话-原型理论的引入与当前译学研究的文化大潮相契合。在论证了引入神话-原型理论的合理性之后,文章的第三、四、五章探讨了文学翻译研究中的三个基本理论问题,包括文学翻译的可译性、文学翻译的本质及译者的精神结构。关于这些问题已有不少研究成果,本文以神话-原型理论为新的观照视阈和理论依据重新阐释这些问题,其中可译性试图回答文学翻译以何存在的问题,本质研究回答文学翻译如何存在的问题,而译者的精神结构回答文学翻译因何存在的问题。这一部分也是本研究力争在文学翻译理论研究中有所突破的地方。第三章在论述文学作品的可译性时,依据原型的稳定性特征,在弗莱对原型具体形态描述的基础上,将原型具体化为主题、结构、意象和语言四个文学作品要素。研究认为,1)初级关怀神话为文学作品的主题提供了可译性;2)结构主义关于民间故事叙事形态及其叙事语法的研究为文学作品深层叙事结构的可译性提供了依据;3)隐喻性文学作品最深层的原型意象体系使不同文化语境下的作品回归共同的本源,并使同一文化语境下的作品之间跨越时空而组合为一个依据一定传统前后延续的整体;4)本章还以本雅明的>纯语言<、弗洛姆的>象征语言<和利明的>神话语言<作为文学语言的理论原型,对文学语言的可译性展开了论证。就翻译的本质而言,第四章遵循从起源考察事物本质的思路,基于文学是神话或隐喻思维的产物以及翻译语言转换的普遍本质,尝试将文学翻译的本质界定为一种创造诗性隐喻的艺术。本章具体从词源考证、更新创造、求同存异、部分提取、身体在场和生存体验六个方面对文学翻译和诗性隐喻做了类比研究,突出了文学翻译的创造性、多义性、体验性和生存本体论意义。这些都是隐喻本质属性的表现,也保留了原始隐喻(神话)思维的痕迹。在引入神话-原型视阈之后,第五章从集体无意识、社会无意识和个人无意识三个层面论述了译者的精神结构。研究认为,具备神话-原型特质的文学作品指向人类的集体无意识深处,这些作品的翻译因此成为一个民族重要的精神诊疗手段。由于神话内在的文化和政治功用,文学翻译成为压制社会成员的意识形态、塑造社会记忆和书写国家神话的符号行为。本章借鉴弗洛姆的社会无意识理论以及心理学中的认同理论,重新阐释了归化和异化的策略选择,认为归化翻译体现了一个民族集体的精神自恋,是一种逃避自由的虚假认同,而异化翻译释放了原本在译入语文化中被压制的无意识成分,以>异化的语言<来对抗语言的异化,是译者对原本充满爱欲的拥抱,达到了主客体同一的隐喻式体验状态。将个人无意识理论引入之后,本章拓宽了翻译的概念内涵,并发现了文学翻译与精神诊疗之间的相似性。翻译批评从某种意义上说是翻译理论向实践转化的中介,在探讨了基本理论问题之后,第六章将弗莱提出的文学的>后视<批评法引入文学翻译批评研究,获得了文学翻译批评中的层次意识、文类意识和互文意识。层次的意识就是从语言符号、多层意义、文本结构和原型模式四个层面展开对译作的评价,强调把前后相继的水平换喻式文本结构解读为向纵深挺进的垂直隐喻式结构。文类意识在文学翻译批评中具有基础地位,不仅为译者提供了书面表达的规范,也为翻译批评者提供了>期待视域<,是其接受和批评译作的起点,并且文类的差异、混杂和界定要素对于文学翻译批评具有重要意义。已有的翻译批评都立足于文本的空间维度,引入原型因素后增加了时间维度,产生了翻译批评的互文视角,其中,译本链、文学传统和文化语境在文学翻译批评的互文意识中发挥主导作用。第七章按照第六章建构起来的文学翻译批评的>后视<法,选取两部具有神话-原型特质的隐喻性文学作品的译本予以评价,包括艾略特的诗歌《荒原》的多个中译本和吴承恩的小说《西游记》的余国藩英文全译本。评价过程有意识地贯穿了层次意识、文类意识和互文意识,试图通过对具体译作的评析,证明本文提出的翻译批评体系具有一定的实践转化能力。总之,本研究是将神话-原型理论引入文学翻译研究的初步探索,在吸取结构主义强调共性与解构主义的批判精神和互文意识等合理性成分的同时也有意识地避免了其中的一些弊端,因此本研究既能与当前译学研究的>文化转向<大潮合流,又能纠正文化范式对文学翻译本体的偏离,使文学翻译研究向着文学性回归。与此同时,本研究展现了当代文化与古老文化传统之间的承继关系,凸显了翻译过程中的无意识层面,强调了文学翻译批评的层次意识。作为一次跨学科理论建构的尝试,本研究期待能有助于译界对文学翻译的新认识。
  • This study is on an interdisciplinary theoretical construction with specific application to translations of the metaphorical literary works modeled on the mythical archetypes It is also a response to some translation theorists' call for a return to translation studies proper, which reflects their increasing worries about the skepticism resulting from the >deconstructive paradigm< and about the tendency to replace translation studies with political concerns in the >cultural turn<. It contends that there should be a return to both literariness as well as language in literary translation. Since anything in existence often exhibits its nature in its origin, such a return entails going all the way back to the ultimate origin of language and literature-myth. By introducing myth-archetype theory into literary translation studies, the author attempts to find a way out of the impasse of deconstructive paradigm by returning to the origin, universality and wholeness of literature. The dissertation stresses universality behind differences and order behind fragmentation, hoping to help translators and translation researchers restore their holy worship for the origination of both language and literature. Quite different from traditional translation studies which overstress rationality, it highlights the unconscious elements involved in literary translation by attending to the poetic effects of translations and the translators' somatic experience. It is especially applicable to translation criticism of metaphorical literary works modeled on mythical archetypes. The whole dissertation consists of five parts. The first part makes a brief review of relevant studies on myths and archetypes. The second part provides justifications for the introduction of myth-archetype theory into literary translation studies. The third part includes three chapters altogether and conducts a tentative investigation into three basic theoretical problems of literary translation studies in the perspective myth-archetype theory. The fourth part intends to construct a translation criticism method on the basis of Northrop Frye's >stand-back< method of myth-archetype criticism. The fifth part applies this method in translation criticism practice. The first chapter makes a brief review of relevant studies on myths and archetypes in different ages and disciplines to clear the ground for subsequent theoretical construction. It shows that >myth< and <archetype< are two closely interrelated concepts: the former is the linguistic vehicle of the latter, and the latter the stable elements in the former; much understanding of the latter results from studies on the former. This chapter also presents some studies on literary translation in the perspective of myth-archetype theory.– Chapter Two is devoted to proving that it is adequately justifiable to introduce myth-archetype theory into literary translation studies because of its close relationship with philosophy, language, literature and culture. Firstly, it was starting from reflections on mythical or metaphorical thinking that Ernst Cassirer laid a new foundation for humanities and their epistemology. Secondly, language is inseparable from myths in its origination and development. Thirdly, literature is claimed to be <displaced myth< and the process of literary creation means the displacement and deformation of archetypes. Lastly, since a myth often embodies a kind of cultural model, the study of it and its relation to translation corresponds with the present >cultural turn< in translation studies. On the whole, this chapter borrows a lot from Northrop Frye's ideas. From Chapter Three to Chapter Five, in the perspective of myth-archetype theory, the author re-examines three basic theoretical issues of literary translation, namely, the translatability of literary works, the nature of literary translation and the translator's psychic structure. Translatability accounts for how literary translation comes into existence, the nature of literary translation defines the way how literary translation exists in one sense, and the translator's psychic structure explains why literary translation exists. On the basis of the stability of archetypes and Frye's descriptions of their various forms, this dissertation studies translatability of literary works by dividing the abstract archetype into four concrete literary elements, i.e. the theme, narrative structure, image and language of literary works. It maintains that primary concern myths explain the commensurability of themes in literature, and the structuralistic studies on the morphology of folk tales and narrative grammar provide evidence for the translatability of deep narrative structure of literary works. In addition, the archetypal image system underlying the metaphorical literary works enables literary works from different cultures to return to the same origin and those within the same cultural system but in different ages to be organized into a unity with its own specific tradition.– Since translating involves first of all linguistic transference, Chapter Three highlights linguistic translatability and proposes three types of linguistic archetypes, namely, Walter Benjamin's >pure language<, Erich Fromm's >symbolic language< and David Leaning's >mythical language<. They demonstrate linguistic translatability from fields of religion, psychology and anthropology respectively.– Incorporating the general nature of translating as linguistic transference and the nature of literature as poetic metaphor, Chapter Four tentatively defines literary translation as an art of creating poetic metaphors, i.e. a metaphor-understanding and metaphor-making activity. Chapter Five makes a comparison between literary translation and poetic metaphor from six aspects: etymological studies, innovative creation, co-existence of similarities and differences, partial transference, somatic presence and existential experience. This comparison exhibits the creative, polysemous, experiential and existential nature of literary translation, which is of metaphorical nature and keeps traces of primitive mythical thinking. The irrational elements in myths always give expression to mankind's unconscious emotions and desires, and archetypes represent collective unconsciousness in human mind. Therefore, the introduction of myth-archetype theory requires an inevitable concern on the subjects' unconsciousness involved in literary translation. The dissertation analyzes the translator's psychic structure from three aspects, i.e. collective unconsciousness, social unconsciousness and individual unconsciousness. It holds that as literary works modeled on myth-archetypes reveal mankind's collective unconsciousness, their translations may function as a psychic therapy. Since myths have always been interwoven with cultural and political motivations, literary translation consequently turns out to be a kind of symbolic activity to repress the nation's ideology, determine their social memory and invent a myth of the state. On the basis of Erich Fromm's ideas on social unconsciousness and the theory of identification in psychology, this dissertation re-explains the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization. It argues that domestication results from a nation's collective narcissism and false identification after its escape from freedom, while foreignization releases the repressed unconscious elements in the receiving culture. To be more specific, foreignization heals the metamorphasized language with the foreignized one. It also indicates the translator's metaphorical state of experience with his total empathy for the source text and the author. In the light of the theory of individual unconsciousness, this dissertation extends the meaning of translation and identifies the similarities between literary translation and psychotherapy. In other words, a translator of literary works is both an analyst and an analysand. Translation criticism, in one sense, is a mediator between translation theory and practice; therefore, after theoretical exploration, Chapter Six establishes a translation criticism method according to Frye's >stand-back< method in literary criticism with stresses on the awareness of levels, genres and intertextuality. Level-awareness means criticism upon a translation on four different levels, that is, linguistic signs, multi-level meanings, text structure and archetypal models. Genre-awareness plays a fundamental role in literary translation studies. It provides translators with writing norms and offers translation critics >horizon of expectation<, thus becoming the starting point of translation reception and criticism. Furthermore, the differences, hybridization and defining elements of genres make a considerable difference to translation criticism. The existent translation criticism generally focuses on comparison and contrast between a source text and its translations. With the entrance of archetypes, however, an intertextual perspective is added. Translation chains, literary traditions and cultural context function as leading intertextual elements in translation criticism. To prove the feasibility of the >stand-back< method of translation criticism stated in Chapter Six, Chapter Seven evaluates translations of two literary works, one is TS Eliot's poem The Wasteland and the other is a classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. These translations are criticized with awareness of levels, genres and intertextuality. As a tentative exploration into literary translation studies in the perspective of myth-archetype theory, this dissertation, in its statement and argumentation, preserves both the structuralists 'stress on universality and the deconstructivists' critical and intertextual awareness while avoiding the weak points of their theories. Therefore, it can converge with the present trend of >cultural turn< in translation studies, and avoid the deviation from translation proper caused by the cultural paradigm. Meanwhile, it finds an approach to returning to literariness itself, discovers the unconscious mind hidden behind translating, highlights the level-awareness in literary translation criticism and shows the continuity of ancient traditions to their contemporary development. Hopefully, it will shed new light on the understanding of literary translation as a whole.

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Metadaten
Author:Yan Su
Parent Title (Chinese):This study is on an interdisciplinary theoretical construction with specific application to translations of the metaphorical literary works modeled on the mythical archetypes It is also a response to some translation theorists' call for a return to transl
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2009
Release Date:2014/01/28
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Su_Yan_2009
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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