A Study on the Readability for the Readers of Literary Works: With Focus on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'urbervilles

Abstract

This paper examined how the theories of readability for readers of literary works were applied to the translations. The literary works analysed Thomas Hardy s Tess of the D urbervilles(1891) and seven different translation texts in terms of legibility, focusing on the accuracy of the original text. It is said to be the best translation when readers of translation text have the same effect as reading the original text. Therefore, translators who want to translate literary works that contain these characteristics should have literary knowledge of the original text and the translation text, as well as the ability to express the meanings contained in the literary text in accordance with the culture of the readers of the translation text. And in order to overcome cultural differences, translators should implement equivalence, even taking into account the aspects of legibility in order to enhance the understanding of readers who read the translation while translating based on the fidelity of the meaning contained in the original text through translation with notes and footnotes etc. And what translators who translate literary works ideally aim for is to faithfully deliver the original text containing the original author s message to the translation text reader, taking into account the aesthetic part.