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On The Complexity And Creativity Of The Theatric Translation In The Perspective Of Cross-Cultural Communication

Posted on:2004-08-13Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J Y LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360092998780Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Drama is a compounding art. This so-called "Stage Art" reflects all walks of life by employing different measures, such as literature, directing, performance, music, art design and so on, to tell stories about people and society. The development of drama closely relates to the boom in economy, science and technology. We can say, drama deals with every aspect of culture, whereas, that is why it is the most problematic and neglected area of translation studies. It is generally accepted that the complexity of theatrical translation is connected to the nature of the play script itself, which exists in a dialectical relationship with the performance of that same text. Except for being a stage art, drama is also a type of literature, which includes stylistic features of novel, poetry, argumentation and so on, and furthermore, owns a special linguistic form :actor's lines, a way playwright employs to shape the personality of the characters, to promote the development of the plot, and to develop the theme of the play. An excellent play script can be read as literature. Not only does drama own the audiences, but the readers. That is to say, drama is both readable and performable and a good theatrical translated version should fulfill these two functions. So here comes the complexity and difficulty of theatrical translation. But at the same time, the richness in the play's content and the diversity in the theatric expression provide the translator with the more space to give full play to his creativity. Susan Bassnett once said, "The difficulties of describing and analyzing what takes place when a playtext is transposed from one language into another and performed inthat second language extend the problematics of the relationship between play and performance much further and compound the problems." (Susan Bassnett, 1990 ) Whether a play can be read and performed in second language successfully or not depends largely on the understanding of the target language reader and audience, that is the cultural barrier. It is worthy for the translator to explore how to remove the barrier between two cultures, to furthest embody the charm of the drama, and to fullest express the cultural flavor and spirit of the original. So maybe we can get inspiration on the theatrical translation from the cross-cultural perspective. It is what this thesis wants to do.This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction, which briefly presents the research methods and the author's viewpoint: the complexity of theatrical translation need more creativity of the translator. The second chapter illustrates the relationship between the cross-cultural communication and translation, and function of language in cross-cultural communication. The third chapter, being the core of this thesis, firstly introduces the origin of drama, and its development in the west and in China; and then, explores the complexity of theatric translation based on Susan Bassnett's theory; at last, it indicates that drama is translatable in spite of its complexity and discusses how to make theatrical translation: the translator can choose to translate a drama as literature or as a stage art. The former puts the focus on the readability of a drama, such as Bian Zhilin's version of Hamlet, in which the translator's task is to fullest keep the original flavor, including thelanguage style and the play structure; the latter emphasizes the performability of the drama. The translator will put more efforts into transposing the translated version onto stage successfully, i.e. besides being easily read, the version should be easily understood by the audiences just by listening, which asks for much more creativity. To do that, the translator is permitted to make a reasonable change to the language style, even the structure, of the original work to gain the best effect as long as the original spirit is embodied. The translator not only translates the play but re-creates it. Zhu Shenghao's version of Hamlet is an good example. The fourth chapter takes...
Keywords/Search Tags:Drama, Cross-Cultural Communication, Function of Language, Readability, Performability, Complexity, Creativity, Susan Bassnett, Secondary Creation
PDF Full Text Request
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