On English Translation Of Chinese Contemporary Fiction From Perspective Of Functionalism

Translating is a purposeful activity. And translators are always driven by specific purposes to achieve'functional appropriateness'rather than mere'linguistic equivalence'. How well the translated works function in a target context comes to be the focus.This thesis studies the translation of representative Chinese contemporary works of two important literary schools in Mainland China since the 1980s—root-seeking and avant-garde fiction in a functionalist approach. It aims to explore the selective and manipulative nature in choosing the Chinese contemporary literary works for translation and to analyze how the image of Chinese fictional literature and culture is presented by the translators through the adoption of various translation strategies.In terms of methodology, the thesis first overviews the translation of root-seeking and avant-garde fiction as a whole by means of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), mainly involving such authors as Ah Cheng, Wang Zengqi, Han Shaogong, Mo Yan, Yu Hua and Su Tong. Then the case study of Yu Hua's two novels—To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant is adopted to analyze from a micro perspective how the translators attain their purpose by resorting to various translation strategies (such as, literal translation, idiomatic translation, reduction and expansion, notes) and probe into some translation errors that go against the translation purpose. Besides, Gideon Toury's DTS, Katharina Reiss and functionalist translation criticism, Hans J. Vermeer's Skopostheorie and its extensions, Justa Holz-M?ntt?ri's theory of translational action, Christiane Nord's function plus loyalty, Peter Newmark's translation strategies will be examined in light of their significance and limitations, as well as their relevance to the current study.The thesis draws such a conclusion: there are mainly three problems of translating Chinese contemporary fiction: first, the inadequate interpretation of source text in accordance with Nord's research of literary translation; second, the translation strategies digressing from the functionalism or Skopos; third, the unqualified source texts themselves. And the tentative solutions refer to: first, translator training; second, the adoption of translation strategies in the guidance of functionalism to firstly cater to the target reader's taste, fit in their culture and then make the endeavor to transmit Chinese culture; third, the improvement of Chinese contemporary fiction by resorting to universally accepted literary techniques, original themes and appealing plots. During the translating, functionalism can be treated as the touchstone to evaluate a translated literary works and facilitate an improvement of translating Chinese contemporary fiction.