A Functionalist Perspective On Drama Translation

From its origin in ancient Greece to the modern times, drama has always been a popular art form among the public. Thanks to its popularity, there have appeared countless translations of world-famous plays in various languages and cultures. However, in contrast to the prolificacy of drama translations, drama translation studies has remained a less explored area characterized by its short history and a serious lack of theories. This phenomenon is largely due to the peculiarity of drama. On the one hand, drama exists in the literary system as a literary genre to be read and studied by the reading public. On the other hand, drama can also be revitalized in the theatrical system as the blueprint for the performance with the audience as its ultimate receptors. This very dual nature of drama has long perplexed both the scholars and the practitioners.Among the numerous modern translation theories, the German functionalist approaches, which have escaped from the fetters of the traditional equivalence-centred linguistic translation theories, provide a new perspective for translation practice and evaluation. As to the functionalists, skopos is the main determinant in the translation process and adequacy is the criterion for translation. In the light of the functionalist approaches, this dissertation clarifies the interrelationship between the dramatic text and the theatrical performance and proposes three categories of translation– inadequate translation, adequate translation and balanced translation for the evaluation of drama translation. After conducting a comparative case study of the three Chinese versions of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, respectively translated by Ying Ruocheng, Chen Liangting and Yao Ke, this dissertation comes to the conclusion that in drama translation balanced translation is ideal, adequate translation is acceptable and inadequate translation is undesirable. It is expected that this new functionalist perspective on drama translation can prove constructive to the development of drama translation studies.