On Reproduction Of Style In E-C Translation Of Novels

In recent years, with the shift of study focus, people have come to realize that literary translation is a process of recreation of art. Therefore, the TT readers' demand of the translation versions is not only their being faithful to the original work in content, but also the reproduction of style in TT. Recently, many translation workers have begun to do researches on style, a controversial issue, in terms of aesthetics or stylistics. For instance, the English linguist and translation theorist Geoffrey N. Leech wrote with his partner Michael H. Short the book Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose, in which he applied both linguistics and literary criticism to the study of style. In China, a famous translation theorist Shen Dan also wrote a book named Stylistics and Fictional Translation, in which she illustrated the recognizability and translatability of style with many examples.There are more than thirty different difinitions of style. Some think that style is form;some regard style as deviation;some view style as the linguistic features that communicate emotions and thoughts. In this paper, "style" is defined as an organic integration of form and content, as the whole of linguistic features that is characteristic of an individual writer. From the angles of linguistics and literature, the thesis mainly discusses about the principles and strategies of style translation. The thesis consists of four chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.In the introduction, the writer briefly introduces the present study of style, and illustrates different definitions of style. It points out that a firm definition of style is the essential issue of style translation.Chapter One briefly defines the domain of style, on the basis of which the author analyses different opinions of fictional style translation, and the relationship between the translator's style and the author's. It puts forwardthat in fictional translation the translator should try to give up his own writing style to reproduce the original one.Chapter Two analyses the features and principles of style translation. First, it should be clear that style is the integration of content and form. Second, translators should adhere to the three principles of correspondence, stratification and syntheses in style translation.Chapter Three analyses the three essential points of reproducing the original style. First, translators should collect materials about the social background of the work, the author's writing skills, and the criticism of the author's style. Second, translators should analyse the ST from both macroscopic and microscopic points of view. Third, while reproducing the original style, translators should adjust the TT to meet the TT readers' demands.Chapter Four illustrates the essential causes of the failure of style reproduction. This chapter is mainly to explain the limitations of style translation.In the conclusion, the thesis points out that, on the one hand, we should acknowledge the translatability of fictional style, and thus the translator should do his utmost to reproduce it;on the other, owing to the differences between two languages and two cultures, there are still some limitations in style translation. However, the translator ought to enhance his knowledge and aesthetic competence to fulfill the aim of literary translation.