A Study On Translation Of Dialectal Expressions Of Local-Color Novels In Chinese Literature (1951-1966) From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

As a vast agricultural country with long-history culture,China has a long history of indigenous culture which is an indispensable and important branch in Chinese culture,and as a kind of literary representative which can strongly reflect Chinese folk culture,local-color literature has the characteristics of rural life as the writing topic,strong local flavor and distinctive local features.It is precisely because of these characteristics that local-color literature has become one of the most powerful forces in the history of Chinese literature.A large number of dialectal expressions contained are the carriers which play the role as transmission of above-mentioned folk features,and they vividly reproduce the local characteristics of Chinese culture.As a common linguistic phenomenon,the distinctive regional characteristics of dialects pose tremendous challenges to translators in the process of translation.Not only that,as a non-standard language,its unique linguistic and stylistic features are also difficult to be reflected in the target language.There are a great number of differences between standard language and dialects in terms of phonetics,grammar,vocabulary and other aspects,making dialects have special literary functions in literary works: shaping character images,creating local atmosphere,restoring cultural context,arousing readers’ resonance and creating drama effect,etc.These differences as well as their importance have drawn the attention of domestic and foreign scholars.However,their research perspectives and the scope concerned are rather narrow,and mostly relied on their subjective judgments,lacking a certain degree of systematicness and comprehensiveness.Therefore,the translation of dialectal expressions deserves further exploration.Chinese Literature is the first and only official publication in China to introduce Chinese literary and artistic works in time and systematically abroad,and it is an important platform for our country to go abroad.In Chinese Literature(1951-1966)there are over two hundred novels which are widely selected and rich in content.Among them,the local-color literature novels occupy a large proportion,about fifty articles.The use of a large number of dialectal expressions is not only the powerful reproduction of the local social and cultural features,but also the representation of literary effect.The thesis studies the translation of dialectal expressions in the local-color novels from Chinese Literature(1951-1966)from the perspective of Rewriting Theory.As for Chinese Literature(1951-1966),the thesis chooses the dialectal expressions from the local novels as the research object,the general translation methods of dialectal expressions and the characteristics of rewriting are summarized and the historical background of China’s politics during the past 17 years is introduced.Efforts are made to analyze and explain the translation phenomena and translation methods from three aspects of the Rewriting Theory.The wish to reveal the current situation of translation of dialectal expressions in local novels from Chinese literature(1951-1966)is expected to arouse people’s attention on the field of dialects translation in local-color literature.The thesis finally finds out that the translation methods of dialectal expressions from local-color novels in Chinese Literature(1951-1966)are flexible,mainly including literal translation,paraphrase,variation translation and transliteration,among which the last three categories are adopted under the manipulation of the factors of social and cultural contexts to realize inordinate rewriting.In terms of translation method of paraphrase,the thesis revealed that the meaning of vulgar dialectal expressions is weakened and the meaning of dialectal expressions about ghosts is trivialized.As for variation translation,it is used to realize the deliberate changes in the sentimental color of dialectal expressions containing derogatory meaning.The purpose for starting publication of Chinese Literature is to demonstrate the active and progressive image of the people in New China.The translators had rewritten these dialectal expressions to weaken the disadvantageous description for shaping the positive images of the Chinese people under the relevant translation work requirements of patrons and the political movements of that period,to achieve the main purpose of the foreign publicity.