As one of the fundamental tools of modern literary criticism, close reading or explication de texte plays an im-portant role for more than French formalists or English speaking New Critics. Close reading can also be a practical guide and useful tool for translation and its criticism, especially in literary translation. Textual setting, context, narrative evolution, diction and implicit meaning, all central to better literary appreciation, can be revealed in the process of close reading of the text to be translated, thus greatly contributing to good rendering of the work in the target language. This paper employs this overall close reading as an approach to critiquing the Chinese version of Willa Cather’s A Wagner Matinée published by Sanlian Publish-ing House. It attempts to reveal possible implications behind the original text and therefore problems with the Chinese version. For each instance analyzed here, it proposes its own suggested translation to reflect the intended meaning.% 作为现代文学批评的基本方法与策略之一，文本细读对翻译尤其是文学翻译也具重要指导意义以及运用价值。作品细读既可在文学分析中揭示掩盖与表面文本之下的深层意义与潜藏文本，同样也可在文学翻译中通过分析微观与宏观语境、叙事结构、通篇构思以及遣词造句等文本细读手段确立较为贴切的译文。本文以文本细读这一方法对美国作家薇拉•凯瑟短篇小说 A Wagner Matinée 三联版中译本作实例研究，参对作品原文揭示文本深层含义从而分析其汉译文存在的问题，展示文本细读在文学翻译中的应用。
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