Optimal Equilibrium Of Translation Principles In Translating Bestsellers: A Case Study Of Chinese Versions Of The Final Diagnosis

In the history of China's traditional translation theories, the three-character principle of "faithfulness", "expressiveness" and "elegance" is universally accepted, to a large extent. Among these characters, "faithfulness" is regarded as the first requisite for translators to strive for, but "elegance" has aroused many heated discussions. Different translators, in different times, have interpreted and understood the three characters differently, and thus, have added new life and vigor to them. Hence, the writer of the thesis adopts this criterion to direct the case study of a bestseller. In the translation practice, especially in the practice of translating bestselling novels with literary value, a translator should make efforts to overcome those adverse factors caused by distinctive features of a bestseller, exert a full role as a translator to follow the "expressiveness" criterion, simultaneously seeking for an optimal equilibrium between faithfulness and elegance, so as to create excellent translated works.The Final Diagnosis, which is used in the case study of the thesis, is the first novel of the famous Canadian bestseller writer Arthur Hailey. Along with the increase of cultural exchange between China and western countries, a tentative study of this bestselling novel helps to examine how to appropriately adopt traditional translation theories in the practice of translation.The present thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one gives a brief account of some dominant translation theories both in China and in the West, explaining that Chinese traditional translation theories focus on the practicability of translation studies; while the western translation circle comparatively pays more attention to the abstractness, orderliness and systematization of translation theories. Therefore, the writer of the thesis concludes that Yan Fu's "faithfulness, expressiveness, elegance" is more suitable and instructive in today's mutual translation of Chinese and English. Chapter two first introduces different interpretations towards the three-character principle, and then the writer of the thesis propounds her understandings. Chapter three briefly introduces the bestselling novel used in the case study as well as its author and the two Chinese versions. Besides, definitions, some distinctive features of bestsellers and some decisive factors that may influence the quality of bestseller translations are provided. Chapter four constitutes the main body of the thesis and focuses on the case study of the two Chinese versions by adopting the three-character principle "faithfulness", "expressiveness" and"elegance". Many sentences are chosen from the two versions and examined from three perspectives: faithfulness and expressiveness, expressiveness and elegance, elegance and faithfulness. According to the example analysis, the writer of the thesis finds that both translators obey the three principles in the majority of cases. But when meeting with some difficulties, two translators adopted some strategies to handle them and adapt the three principles accordingly. For instance, when faithfulness and expressiveness are quite hard to be observed simultaneously, priority is given to expressiveness principle by two translators; when expressiveness and elegance are not attained at the same time, both Shu and Li agree that expressiveness principle is prior to elegance; when conflicts arise between faithfulness and elegance, Li holds to elegance at the sacrifice of faithfulness, while Shu maintains a better equilibrium between them. Therefore, expressiveness is prior to the other two principles, so far as the bestseller The Final Diagnosis is concerned. Comparatively speaking, Shu obeyed the "expressiveness" principle and found an optimal equilibrium between "faithfulness" and "elegance", thus, produced a version with a rather high quality. Li also obeyed the "expressiveness" principle, but she did not pay attention to "faithfulness" and "elegance" at the same time, which results in the decrease of quality in the translated work. In Chapter...