《校長室裡的孩子》中譯自我評析──從文化訊息之詮釋表達看譯者文化意識之發展

Abstract

本論文旨在探討譯者文化意識之發展如何影響其對文本文化訊息之詮釋表達。本文所謂「文化意識」，係指辨識瞭解文化訊息之能力與歷程，譯者是翻譯行為的主體，掌握詮釋原文內涵與決定譯文型式的權力，因此譯者能否發揮文化意識，充分掌握原文各個層面之意義，攸關譯文之成果。筆者以《校長室裡的孩子》之翻譯歷程為例，分析原著型式與內容反映的文化訊息，比對筆者不同階段之譯稿，檢視異同之處，並回顧翻譯歷程中，筆者對文化訊息之瞭解掌握是否有所改變，對原文的詮釋及譯文的表達型式有何影響。本論文分為五章：第一章緒論，為研究動機與目的之概述、原著作者簡介與內容分析，並對研究範圍與相關名詞加以界定；第二章文獻探討，分別就文化意識、譯者詮釋與翻譯之關係，概略回顧相關論述研究；第三章研究方法，引用George Steiner之詮釋學觀點，將翻譯歷程視為譯者在原文與譯文體系中尋求平衡的過程，以此作為譯文評析的理論基礎；第四章譯文評析，將原文文化訊息分為型式與內容兩部分，分別擇取若干譯文實例，評析原文譯文表現之文化訊息是否達到平衡，並檢討兩者無法平衡之因素；第五章結論，先綜合評析筆者於翻譯歷程中文化意識之發展以及文化訊息之詮釋表達，再針對如何使原文譯文的文化訊息達到平衡，提出譯者應當留意的若干原則。

This thesis aims at revealing how a translator’s cultural awareness may influence his/her interpretation of the cultural information in the texts. “Cultural awareness” here refers to a translator’s ability to recognize the cultural information as well as the sequential process of tackling with such information. A translator, as the agent of translation, has the power to interpret the source text and determine how it should be transformed into the target text. Therefore, whether the target text can fully convey the meanings of all dimensions of the source text greatly depends on the translator’s ability to utilize his/her cultural awareness. In this thesis, I drew my experience of translating A Child in the Principal’s Office as an example, analyzed the cultural information embodied in the form and the content of the original text, and compared with several versions of my translations which were rendered at different moments in the process of translation for the purpose of finding out the same and the different among such versions. Then, I examined whether my cultural awareness changed during the translation process, and, if it did, what impacts this change had on my interpretation of the source text. This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One, Introduction, includes a general statement of the motivations and the purposes of this thesis, a brief introduction of the author of A Child in the Principal’s Office, and a comprehensive analysis of this book. Chapter Two, Literature Review, presents some of the translation studies and discourses relevant to cultural awareness and the translator’s power to interpret. Chapter Three is Methodology, in which I adopt George Steiner’s perspective of hermeneutics according to which translation is viewed as the hermeneutic motion and the process of restituting balance between the source text and the target text. Such perspective is applied as the theoretical basis of the evaluating and commenting on my translations. Chapter Four is Evaluation and Comment on the Translations of Child in the Principal’s Office. In this chapter, cultural information is categorized into Form and Content and the passages in the text are accordingly presented and then analyzed so as to see whether the cultural information of my translations is equivalent to that of the source text. If not, further analyses are made to explore the reasons for the imbalance. Chapter Five, Conclusion, consists of two sections as follows: (1) the comprehensive evaluation and comments on the development of my culture awareness during the translation process and my interpretation of cultural information in the texts; (2) several major principles to which translators should pay attention in search of the balance between the source text and the target text.