On Performance-oriented Drama Translation

It is well known that drama translation is a rather complicated work which distinguishes itself from other literary translations by its dual nature. However, in the history of translation studies, compared with other literary genres, the study of drama translation is a comparatively less explored area. Especially in China, theatrical performance as the ultimate fulfillment of drama's special property is often neglected. What's more, the studies on drama translation are mainly focus on its literary attribute but not its theatrical attribute. To compensate for this limitation, the thesis tries to explore some guidelines or principles for performance-oriented drama translation.It is pointed out in this thesis that drama is different from other literary genres for it is a comprehensive art which concentrates all the characteristics of dance, literature, music, painting and sculpture on itself. As a performing art, the aesthetic significance of drama can not be fully realized without the audience's reception. The translation of drama, therefore, should take the performance aspect and the target audience's reception into serious consideration. Besides, characters, as the key of a dramatic text, urge every playwright to make great efforts to make his characters vivid and impressive. Therefore, apart from the consideration of performability and acceptability, to make his/her work charming and attractive, a translator has to take the individuality into consideration for the characters are the only thing a playwright tries to portray.Performability is a term firstly proposed by Bassnett. But lately, it is sternly criticized by Bassnett. She asserts that performability is a term without credibility and only "superhuman" has the ability to explore the action of the play. So, the term performability should be abandoned completely and attentions should be paid back to the dramatic text itself. To prove the feasibility of performability as well as acceptability and individuality, the author takes Ying Ruocheng's version Death of a Salesman as a case study and gets a detailed discussion on the skills chosen by Ying Ruocheng to reach such purposes. As a result, the great success of the performance of Death of a Salesman shows that the principles such as performability as well as acceptability and individuality are reasonable and feasible.