A Report On E-C Translation Of Apex Hides The Hurt (Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

This report is based on the selected material of the novel Apex Hides the Hurt written by the African American writer Colson Whitehead.The novel was once included among The New York Times 100 Most Notable Books,and won the Josephine Miles Literary Award in 2008.In the novel,the protagonist is a nomenclature consultant.The story is mainly about the Council of Winthrop Town hired him to rename the town.By means of nomenclature,the author rethinks the history,contemporary society and future of America,integrating racial identity,colonial history,slavery,emerging industries,consumerism and multiculturalism.The novel reflects that in modern American society,superficial names or slogans would only hide the hurt of multiculturalism rather than essentially solve the problems of different identities.The author adopts the stream of consciousness of modernism,such as inner monologue and free association,and literary techniques of postmodernism,such as montage and juxtaposition.The text is filled with distinctive and innovative names,concise language,witty style,and profound themes,which is of great significance to translation practice and research.In view of the features of the text,the report adopts Ernst-August Gutt’s Relevance Translation Theory to realize the optimal relevance by finding the “communicative clues” and accurately conveying the contextual effects to the target readers.Taking into account the textual characteristics including narrative techniques and cultural background,the report aims to retain the original style from three aspects.At the lexical level,it analyzes brand names,place names and personal names in the original text.Based on the principle of direct translation,annotation is used to help readers understand the text.At the sentence level,the report discusses how to display the contextual effects of tense and sentence structure in translation.In terms of discourse,the translator intends to represent the effect of inner monologues and free association of the stream of consciousness in translation.