Translating Drama For Theatrical Performance——With A Brief Review Of Ying Ruocheng's Theory And Practice Of English-Chinese Drama Translation

The study of drama translation is a comparatively less explored area characterized by a serious lack of guiding theory, and theatrical performance as the ultimate fulfillment of drama's special property is often neglected. There is a relative absence of theoretical writing on drama and its translation. In order to compensate for this limitation, the present paper sets out to examine English-Chinese translation of drama in an aesthetic perspective. Reception Aesthetics, a newly developed discipline, is adopted by the author as the theoretical basis of the present study, and a performance-oriented rather than a reader-oriented approach is highly advocated. Every text-type has its own peculiarity that distinguishes it from others, and different text-types should be dealt with respectively when translated. There is no universally applicable translation theory that is proper for all types of text. Consequently, in translating drama which has its own uniqueness, a translator should adopt translation theories and principles that are the most relevant. It is put forward in this thesis that drama is different from other literary genres in that drama is more of a performing art than a mere linguistic art. The aesthetic significance of drama as an art form can not be fully realized without the audience's reception. The translation of drama, therefore, should take the performance aspect and the target language audience's reception into serious consideration. The present paper also involves a brief study of Ying Ruocheng's English-Chinese drama translation practice, and a tentative description of his drama translation theory is provided. The author concludes that Ying's translation principles and criterion accord with the viewpoints of Reception Aesthetics. His translation of five English plays for stage performance exemplifies the pertinence and applicability of Reception Aesthetics in the field of drama translation. Structurally, this thesis paper consists of five chapters. Chapter One gives a general introduction to drama translation. Drama is carefully defined and classified at the very beginning, and an analysis of the dualistic nature of drama translation together with a literature review are provided in this chapter. Reception Aesthetics as a new discipline that has shed light on drama translation is introduced in Chapter Two. Hermeneutics and Gestalt theory which are closely connected with Reception Aesthetics are also referred to in this Chapter. In Chapter Three, drama translation will be approached from the angle of aesthetics through the illustration of aesthetic object, aesthetic subject, and aesthetic experience. Chapter Four offers a detailed analysis of performance-oriented drama translation under the guidance of Reception Aesthetics. The analysis will be implemented from two aspects: presupposition of audience's receptivity and reproduction of aesthetic constituents of the drama. The present author's arguments will be exemplified through a careful study of several examples selected from Ying Ruocheng's translated version of five English plays. A conclusion is provided in Chapter Five. The significance of performance-oriented drama translation is highlighted and the applicability of Reception Aesthetics in drama translation is justified.