A Semiotic View Of The Translation Of Modern Chinese Drama

Though being an indispensable part of literary translation, drama translation has its own characteristics. The reason is, as Susan Bassnett puts it, "it is only in performance that the full potential of the text is realized". Some translation theorists and critics have conducted some studies on drama translation, but generally speaking the material is limited in quantity, to say nothing of the studies on the translating of Chinese modern dramas. The modern Chinese spoken drama, which came into existence under the influence of western drama, is an indispensable part of Chinese drama, as well as a treasure of Chinese national art. Translating modern Chinese spoken drama is an effective method of communicating and transmitting Chinese culture, but the studies in the translation of modern Chinese spoken drama are obviously restricted to a small scope.This thesis reviews the translation of classical Chinese dramas and the birth of modern Chinese dramas, sums up the basic theories of the three branches of semiotics-pragmatics, semantics and syntactics. Then, it goes on to analyze the characteristics of dramas, especially modern Chinese dramas, from both the general sense and a semiotic point of view. Based on the characteristics, the thesis looks into the application of the three branches of semiotics into the translation of modern Chinese dramas. Lao She's Teahouse is decided on for case study and analyses. It is on such a basis that the thesis makes an attempt to offer some suggestions on the translation of modern Chinese dramas, in the hope of giving some enlightenment to other forms of drama translation.