On The Translation Of Foregrounding Language In Novels

The aesthetic value of novels not only depends on the meaning it conveys, but also the way in which the meaning is expressed. The way of conveying meaning is the writing style of a writer. In novels, the language deviates from conventional usage and draw readers’attention, which is called foregrounding language. Foregrounding has been used as a writing technique by some writers to present their unique styles. The concept of foregrounding is rooted in the Russian Formalism. Professor Ye Zinan is the first to advocate the application of foregrounding theory in translation study and practice. Based on the foregrounding theory put forward by Professor Ye Zinan and foregrounding classification propose by Leech and Short, the thesis makes a tentative analysis of the translation of foregrounding language in The Republic of Wine, an English translation version of Mo Yan’s novel Jiu Guo.To apply foregrounding theory in translation provides a new perspective to translation practice. Especially in the transition of novels, the recognition and representation of foregrounding language is of great importance. As for foregrounding recognition:firstly, translators should differentiate unintentional foregrounding from intentional foregrounding. The former one is caused by different culture and language system between source language and target language, which has little relation to the theme and style of original text while the latter is caused by writers’intentional design, which relates to the original style and theme. Secondly, the intentional foregrounding can be divided into quantitative foregrounding observed by the form of overregularity and qualitative foregrounding recognized by deviation. With respect to foregrounding representation, different translation strategies and methods should be applied in different types of foregrounding in novels.Jiu Guo is a representative novel of Mo Yan, who is the first Chinese writer, awarded Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel forms a special writing style, caused by a lot of foregrounding language. The thesis compares the novel Jiu Guo to its translation version The Republic of Wine and discusses the translation of foregrounding language in novels. On this basis, it proposes two translation principles:the equivalent effective principle and the acceptability principle. Finally, the thesis summarizes translation strategies in dealing with different kinds of foregrounding:Foregrounding avoidance could be used in the unintentional foreground. Foregrounding reservation and transformation are two effective, ways to represent intentional foregrounding in target language. Foregrounding reservation is achieved by imitating original forms of foregrounding while foregrounding transformation is realized by creating a new form of foregrounding in target language. As a whole, the thesis emphasizes that the representation of foregrounding language has a significant influence on novel translation.The author hopes the summarized translation strategies could enrich the foregrounding theory and gives revelation to novel translation.