A Study On The Dramatic Language Features Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray In Its Translation

The Picture of Dorian Gray as a representative work of Oscar Wilde's aesthetic concept of art for art's sake demonstrated many dramatic features, such as long passages of dialogues, action language and a variety of sensory experiences in seeing, hearing and smelling etc. in description of settings, which demonstrate different dramatic elements. So far few theses can be found in the translation study of the novel's language. With three Chinese versions analyzed, the thesis intends to discuss translation of the dramatic language features in detail.The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter discusses how the three main features, colloquialism, characterization and rhetoric are dealt with in the translation. The chapter bases on the theory of functional stylistics and puts forward some specific standards for the performing dialogues, the registers of different character, adaptation and compensation in translation. The second chapter studies the translation of action language. Guided by Skopostheorie, we hold that character's emotional conflicts and changes should be paid attention to in conservation translation, and characteristics of different persons and strong movement effects in body actions should be translated. The translation of psychological activity should be connected with fluidity and futurity of language. At the same time, the author retires behind the text. The third chapter illustrates how the translation of the scenes in novel reproduces the sense of the stage performance and thus achieves the dramatic effect. This chapter studies the translation of setting descriptions, stage effects and virtual stage illusions. It is essential to manifest the features of external forms and to emphasize sensory experiences and spatial sense in order to reconstruct the stage scenes in the novel.The conclusion is a summary of different strategies for the translation of the language's dramatic features. The stage performance as a general principal for the study of all the strategies leads the translation to a better reflection of the novel's stylistic features.