Application Of The Speech Act Theory To The Translation Of Chinese Huaju

Drama translation is a special field of literary translation. Since drama has the dual natures of a literary art and a theatrical art, drama translation is more complex and faces more challenges than the translation of other literary genres. The presentation and performance of a drama are under great limitations, and the target text is open to these limitations. Although whether drama translation should be reading-oriented or performance-oriented is still in issue, the studies on this issue broaden our view of the duality of drama. The life of a drama depends on both its literary value and its theatrical value. The translator is free to produce a target text with different orientations, but the value of the target text depends more on the manner in which it is to be used.Different approaches have been taken to study drama translation, but the performable qualities of the playtext have not received due attention and interest. Most studies of drama translation in China are descriptions and evaluations based on the comparative analysis of different translation versions, basically taking drama as mere literature. Studies from the perspective of performance are also deficient in practical directions. They generalize some superficial requirements for the target text for performance, but few of them have been devoted to the practical realization of the performable qualities in translation.Chinese Huaju appeared in the early 20^th century. It is a special branch of drama. Huaju translation shares the challenges with the translation of other drama subcategories, but it is distinctive in that it relies on the dialogue to do characterization and develop the plot. Therefore, the translation of the dramatic dialogue undertakes heavier tasks. The language of Huaju is full of action, and the utterances of characters are of intense intentionality. Characters perform acts in their utterances. This is the central idea of the speech act theory. It involves the speaker's intention in making utterance. The hypothesis is that the speech act theory is applicable to the translation of Chinese Huaju. It helps keep the specialty of the playtext and contributes to the performability of the target text. The author gives prominence to the key concept "illocutionary force" and illustrates its applicability to Huaju translation in detail. The author points out five principles of reproducing illocutionary force in the target language: the principle of colloquialism, the principle of characterization, the principle of appropriateness, the principle of "iceberg", and the principle of no perception obstacle. These five principles also aim at the specialty of the language of Huaju. The analysis is based on the case study of Thunderstorm translated by Wang Zuoliang with the help of Barnes. It implies that the translator is the master of the communication between characters. The author further analyzes Wang Zuoliang's translation for more implications for Huaju translation.