Translation in Literary Studies

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Literary translation Literary translation has never ceased to exert influence on the development of certain culture. Translation is a means of cultural enrichment and so is literary translation. Literary works, rich in cultural elements, are reflections and sublimation of society and life. Most people get an understanding of other peoples and other nations through translated texts, of which literary translation has never occupied a small proportion (Gu Jun, 2001:414). It can be said that, at the time when a nation witnesses a considerable importation of foreign cultural elements, a vast number of translated texts serve as media, via which foreign ideas and concepts are introduced into the culture of the recipient nation. Importation of this kind implants heterogeneous elements into the target culture, enriches its development. The target social and cultural system provides sources for the translator and has a certain impact on the literary translation. To make a better understanding, I shall present here a definition of culture. Although it is said that culture is defined in hundreds of ways, the term “culture” taken from culture-oriented translation scholars’ idea is proper enough to be borrowed in this paper: A complex ‘system of systems’ composed of various subsystems such as literature, science, and technology. Within this general system, extra literary phenomena relate to literature not in a piecemeal fashion but as interplay among subsystems determined by the logic of the culture to which they belong. (Steiner, 1984:112) Seen in this light, culture is no longer restricted to a narrow sense, but extends to a broader field, referring to all socially conditioned aspects of human life. Translation, literary translation is no exception, is one part of culture and no doubted affected and restrained by other factors of culture. As Lefevere remarks that
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