A Study Of The Strategies For Reproducing The Style Of Dramatic Language In Translation

Drama is one of the major literary genres, but due to the double identities of drama (for reading as literature as well as for performance on stage), many former scholars on translation over-concerned some factors in theatrical semiotics while neglecting the translation of dramatic language itself. Literary stylistics, which has already been widely applied into literary translation studies, is thus seldom combined with drama translation studies.Literary stylistics focuses on exploring how the authors convey or reinforce the thematic meaning or aesthetic value of literary texts by particular linguistic choices, i.e., exploring the relation between language artistic effects or aesthetic functions in literary works (stylistic significance/value) and the linguistic forms or techniques that achieve this (style markers), because in literary works: CONTENT←→STYLISTIC VATUE=(total)SIGNIFICANCE.It is very important to reproduce the original style in translation. Based on some fruits of stylistics, stylistic translation believes that the translator can embark on the key task of stylistic translation——how to reproduce the original style in the target text——after he successfully identifies the style markers and the resulting stylistic significances of various linguistic levels of the source text through stylistic analysis. Liu Miqing pointed out that the main concern of stylistic translation is the manifestation of the original stylistic significance and the adaptability of the target style to the original based on stylistic analysis of the source text.This thesis, on the basis of stylistic translation and literary stylistics, has taken the dramatic language of the famous British dramatist Oscar Wilde in the nineteenth century as a case and made an elaborate research to explore the strategies for reproducing the style of dramatic language in translation. This research first analyzes what style markers in the selected case embody the main stylistic features of dramatic language——poetic, colloquial, implicit, rhetorical and individualized——and the resulting stylistic significance by applying the multilevel theoretical approach posed by Liu Miqing and Snell-Hornby. Then this research concludes a series of strategies for reproducing these features in the target texts by comparing the target texts which amount to the standard of stylistic equivalence (the target texts reproduce the original stylistic significance) with the source texts through a method of descriptive translation study. Meanwhile, this research also explores what specific elements are involved in the adoption of these strategies, hoping to contribute to the future translation practice of drama translation. Main research results are in the following:1) The poetic feature of dramatic language is mainly manifested by alliteration, pararhyme and end rhyme of the phonological level, epithet of the lexical level and antithesis, parallelism and epigram of the syntactical level in the selected case. Formal equivalence is very important in reproducing the poetic feature of dramatic language. Two factors, the original rhyme and syntactical structure, should be retained, imitated or even creatively rebuilt in every possible way including sacrificing a little fidelity.2) The colloquial feature of dramatic language is mainly embodied in the modal particle and interjection of the lexical level and ellipsis and tit-for-tat remarks of the syntactical level. It is a quite common strategy to add modal particles and interjections in the target texts to reproduce the colloquial feature. In the case of translating syntactical markers, in addition to make a good corresponding, the translator may need to recast new ones while complying with the habit and characteristics of the target language to reproduce the casualness and vigor or tense of dramatic language.3) Many style markers of the lexical level in the selected case embody the implicit feature of dramatic language, including pun, polysemy, idiomatic deviation, and culture-specific item. Rhetorical question is the main syntactical marker of this feature. The translator can first dig out the implied meanings of the lexical markers and then reproduce them in the target language by recasting new ones or find some other linguistic forms to replace them while decoloring the style markers so as to achieve the same stylistic significances. The strategy of corresponding is only effective when translating the syntactical markers that both exist in English and Chinese.4) This research mainly covers four other rhetorical markers apart from the already discussed: metaphor, hyperbole, paradox and anticlimax. The strategies of corresponding or equivalent imitation can be effective to construct the same devices in the target text, since they are possessed by both languages and they have the same linguistic characteristics.5) The individualized feature of dramatic language is embodied in all linguistic aspects. A translator can first fully grasp all the details of each figure, especially the personality, educational background and social status and thus choose suitable words to reproduce the speaker's tones, speaking manners and the like. The strategies of deft application of common Chinese daily expressions and creative compensation may sometimes achieve a lot. 6) The strategy of creative compensation plays a significant role in reproducing the stylistic features of dramatic language and compensating the lost or decolored style markers and the resulting stylistic significance. There are usually two ways adopted for creative compensation: one is to change the unmarked expressions into obvious style markers and the other is to directly add style markers based on the conversational context and theatric effect instead of the original linguistic fact. The concluded strategies can not be separated from each other in translation practice, but in the cases where one feature is more prominent than the other, the concluded strategies specifically to reproduce this feature will be more effective and significant than the others.