A Report On The Translation Of Afterward

Afterward,created by an American writer Edith Wharton(1862-1937)in 1910,is a short ghost story which is entitled under in her story collection called Tales of Men and Ghosts.In her twilight years,Wharton committed most of her energy to the creation of ghost stories.However,the domestic translation study on the reproduction of the Gothic elements in Wharton’s ghost stories is extremely lacking.Gothic elements constitute Gothic story.Gothic story is a genre or mode of literature that combines story and horror,death,and at times romance.And Gothic elements are mainly reflected in three aspects 一 the setting and atmosphere,the characterization,the plot development and the theme.How to reproduce the Gothic elements in translation is the focus of this report.Gothic stories written by Wharton are mainly manifested as:As for setting,mysterious and grotesque ruined buildings are regarded as common setting elements;in terms of character,wretched heroines are the victims under the shackles of patriarchal society;about the theme,revenge and revolt are the recurrent themes of Gothic stories.In the short story Afterward,Gothic elements are mainly embodied as follows:Firstly,on the setting and atmosphere,the story took place in an old house with a mysterious and horrible atmosphere which lays the keynote for the whole story.Secondly,on the characterization,the story focuses on the classic ghost and the female character.Rich and complex characters not only move the plot along,but also create a tense and horrific atmosphere.Thirdly,on the plot development and the theme,the revenge of the ghost is the main line of the story which exposes the ugly side both of society and human nature,and explores the morality especially.In order to attain the effect of the vivid expression on the mysterious and horrible atmosphere in the source text,characterization of different figures,as well as the highlight of the plot development and the theme of the story,it is necessary to achieve equivalence or similarity between the source text and the target text.Functional equivalence theory of Nida exactly emphasizes the "equivalence" between the source text and the target text.So this report will explore the reproduction of Gothic elements in the source text based on functional equivalence theory.Besides introduction,this report is divided into four parts,namely task description,task process,case analysis and conclusion.The second and third chapters of the report aim to introduce the life of the author,the content of the story,the process and proofreading of translation,the preparation and analysis before translation which includes the introduction to Gothic story and Gothic elements,the reflection of Gothic elements in the source text and so on.Chapter four is case analysis.Based on the functional equivalence theory,this report takes the translation of afterward as an example to discuss about some major translation strategies of Gothic elements for helping translators to solve practical problems during translation.The last chapter makes a conclusion that how to highlight the profound theme of the story through the description of the horror atmosphere and different characters for readers,namely discussing more specifically the reproduction of Gothic elements in a ghost story.Through studying the translation,firstly,about the translation of horror atmosphere,literal translation is mainly adopted for readers to feel the atmosphere of terror in the source text.We need to pay attention to the usage of words and the processing of sentences.Secondly,about the translation of story’s characters,we need to notice the translation of appearance,dialogue,psychological activity and action in order to accord with their own identities and in this way the theme of the story can be shown reasonably.Thirdly,about the translation of story’s theme,we should pay attention to the writing techniques after understanding the real meaning of the author,and then express it by translation.