Drama Translation: A Comparative Study Of The Two English Versions Of Teahouse

As an important literary genre, drama has a long history and old tradition. Under the influence of western drama, China has also developed its own drama. And translating our own drama is an effective way to spread China's culture.However, for a long time, little attention has been paid to this field. In western countries, there are a lot of terminologies on drama translation. Joseph Che Suh says that this phenomenon suggests "scholars and researchers in the area of drama translation have been working in isolation" (Suh,2002, p.53). There is no theoretical framework on drama translation. And in China, there is also not much discussion on drama translation. Unlike the translation of other literary genres, drama is more than a text. It should be put on stage at the same time. Drama translation is not just a change of two languages, but a creation of the dramatic effect.Teahouse is one of the classic dramas in China, and it has received a warm welcome when performed abroad. Based on the researches of the theories of drama translation, some basic and specific problems are raised by the author with the purpose of achieving dramatic effect. And how these problems are solved in specific examples is analyzed by comparing the two English versions of Teahouse.This paper is divided into four parts. The first part is a basic introduction to drama and to the characteristics of drama language. The second part is a literature review of drama translation, serving as the theoretical structure of this thesis. The third part is the analysis of the two English versions of Teahouse from the perspective of dramatic effect, namely from the performability, the cultural aspects, the concise nature of language, the musicality of language and so on. And the last part is conclusion, giving a summary of the whole thesis, specific strategies of drama translation and limitations of the present research.