On Chinese Translation Of English Children's Literature

This thesis is a study on Chinese translation of English children's literature as viewed through Invisibility Theories,in which both concerned theories and its application are presented here.Whether a translator should be visible or invisible has been a critical question prevailing in the translation field for a long time.For many years, scholars in China and overseas have been developing different theories leading to various conclusions about this.In The Translator's Invisibility, American translation theorist Lawrence Venuti provides a thorough and critical examination of the translator's Invisibility.That is,without the feeling of having been translated when one is reading a translated work. The translator must know the target language and culture so as to avoid those awkward sounding words and other pitfalls when doing the translation.The aim and goal of translation should be decided by the receptor.That is,the target language and the target language culture are the first thing to be considered when doing a translation.But there is another voice in the Invisibility Theory of Translation. Professor Xu Jun thinks "Basically,Invisibility is to make translators invisible,more correctly,the translator's invisibility requires translators, who are rightly called "servants",not to "make decisions by themselves".Venuti's Invisibility theory is domestication,but the translation is restrained by the original,so totally invisible,domestic is almost impossible.That's why Venuti called this Invisibility as "an illusionist effect of discourse".Xu Jun analyzed Invisibility as Foreinization, translators are "servants".Since translators are always with creativeness, and totally becoming "servants" is impossible too.In my thesis,I try to analyze the translation of children's literature through the lens of Invisibility theory.These characteristics deserve the special attention of the translators of children's literature in order to produce excellent works for children.When translators are doing the translation for children,whether they are being visible or invisible depends on the different cases.Translators can be visible when they are trying to achieve readability and child image and they can be invisible when there are some culture elements that require annotation.Translation of children's literature is characterized by the children's imagination,readability and educational function.In this paperâ… also focus on the translator and the translation of children's literature.The most important element of translation of children's literature is the translator being visible.The target language needs to be transparent and fluent.The translator for children's literature should be multi-face instead of a writer with a single style.Although most of the translators for children's literature are adults,they cannot translate the children's books with adult language.The psychology and immaturity of children strongly suggests that the messenger,the translator,to have an intimate relationship with children as friends or family members.As much as this concerned,the style should not be formal and stiff but rather a casual style should be used.Basically,there should be no conflict between the "faithfulness" towards the author and the "faithfulness" towards the children readers.The author is writing to serve the children readers,and the translators try to make them perfect by their understanding and their target language translation.More attention should be paid to adaptation in translation for children.Categories of adaptation like breviary,simplified version,cartoon version,media version,and cultural transplant are widely used in translation for children.I think those elements mentioned above are good criteria for the translation of children's literature.