5．2 The Domain of Literary Translation文学翻译的范畴
Translation can be roughly classified into two forms，literary translation and nonliterary translation．Literary studies have always，explicitly or implicitly，presupposed a certain notion of“literariness”with which it has been able to delimit its domain，specify，and sanction its methodologies and approaches to its subject．This notion of“literariness”is crucial for the theoretical thinking about literary translation．According to the traditional discussion，literature is considered as an autonomous and independent domain．According to Wang Hongyin (王宏印，2006: 143-149)，literature can be divided into primary type，which includes novels，prose，poetry and dramas，and secondary type，which includes epic，biography，prose poem，words of a song and poetic drama．Primary type is the basic one in literary typology and the ratified type in aesthetics．Secondary type derives and comes from the primary type．
The traditional discussion of literary translation considers finding equivalents not just for lexis，syntax or concepts，but also for features like style，genre，figurative language，historical stylistic dimensions，polyvalence，connotations as well as denotations，cultural items and culture-specific concepts and values．The choices made by the translators like the decision whether to retain stylistic features of the source language text or whether to retain the historical stylistic dimension of the original become all the more important in the case of literary translation．
According to Peter Bush ，“Literary translation is the work of literary translators．That is a truism which has to serve as a starting point for a description of literary translation，an original subjective activity at the centre of a complex network of social and cultural practices．”(Taken from Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies，2004)
There often are discussions about which one of the two types: documental and scientific translation and literary translation，offers greater difficulties．Some people sustain that the scientific-technical translation is more difficult because of the experience and knowledge it requires in different disciplines and，therefore，a stronger specialization．Others are of the opinion that literary translation is more difficult because of the language quality required here for the original as well as the translated texts．In our opinion，literary translation is no less important and difficult as documental and scientific translation．This is because each requires its own experience and knowledge and both need to solve their problems in translating．