Application Of Functional Equivalence Theory In Stage-oriented Drama Translation

Drama translation is a special branch of literary translation. Due to the fact that dramas are generally translated for stage performance, drama translation bears its unique features: performability and readability. These two factors become the key ingredients in drama translation which cannot be ignored. Therefore, the translator of drama inevitably should bear the potential audience in mind in translating. That is to say, the audience's direct and immediate interaction with the actors on the stage enables them to be regarded as an element far more important than the readers in the literary system. Nida's functional equivalence theory views the receptor as an important dimension in translation practice and this theory emphasizes much on the communicative and understandable quality of the translated text, therefore, it can be resorted to as a guide in drama translation.This thesis firstly attempts to explore the linguistic features of drama and the unique characteristics of drama translation. Then it gives an overview of the theory of translation equivalence and asserts that Nida's functional equivalence theory is applicable and practical in drama translation. It also carries out a case study on the English version of Thunderstorm to examine how Wang Zuoliang, its translator, achieves effective equivalence in his rendering. Based on the case study the author proposes three types of translation strategies that can be employed by the translator to realize the goal of functional equivalence. Moreover, to achieve functional equivalence, the translator of drama is required to study the source drama with great efforts and equips himself or herself with both bilingual and bicultural competence and takes great pains to reduce the loss and distortion of style, culture and linguistic features in the source text. And last but not the least, effective equivalence is achieved only in a roundabout way by making necessary adjustments.