Studies in Literary Self-translation: Retrospects and Prospects

Self-translation or auto-translation, a kind of translation of special significance, usually refers to the self-translation of literary works.Self-translation began to attract a close attention from the academic circles both at home and abroad only recently.Although some efforts have been made to the study in self-translation in terms of such three aspects as self-translation’s definitions and category demarcation, its history as well as its research perspectives, there are still more to be explored: (1) a further study could be made in definition and category demarcation of self-translation; (2) more studies need to be conducted on comparative analyses among self-translated works by self-translators of the same kind or between the works by the self-translator of one kind and that of the other kind; (3) much more work still could be well worth doing about the descriptive studies in self-translation’s theoretical foundation, operating mechanism, intersubjectivity, intertextuality, criterion and strategy.