Translating Dialogically For Children

Children's literature has long been neglected by the literary systems,and the translation of children's literature takes a peripheral position in literary system.As the notion of childhood has changed since 1980s,children have been exposed to vast quantities of children's books written by native and foreign authors,but the relevant research on translated children's literature in China is faced with many problems:the traditional view of translation of children's literature focuses on didactic and pedagogical functions;textual equivalence is still used as the point of departure on criticism of translation quality;the translator of children's literature is often invisible.From the perspective of dialogism,the paper aims to call for a shift from author-centered approach to translator-centered and reader-centered approach in translation of children's literature,call for a respect for children's carnivalistic culture and call for understanding of children's reading experience.It will draw on the findings on childhood from other disciplines:child psychology,literary studies and philosophy,showing that every author/translator has a child image which directs his/her works towards that superaddressee.Two Chinese versions of The Lion,the Witch,and the Wardrobe,a classic English fantasy story will be used as a case study. The case study is conducted from a descriptive scheme of preliminary data, macro-level,micro-level,and systemic context.Through analysis of author-reader-text relation,different approaches and strategies on wording,stress,tone,and religious implication etc showing different educational,social,literary norms at work.Although carnivalistic laughter can be heard in both versions,the translation strategy of the two versions is mainly foreignization,thus making the children reader moving to the original to experience culture bumps.