An Aesthetic Study Of Drama Translation

Drama is deeply enjoyed by people throughout the world due to its concise language and profound themes. However, drama translation studies are always placed in the marginal areas and haven't received due attention. Since 1950s, the linguistic school of western translation studies has attempted to set translation studies (including literary translation) in the range of linguistics. A host of scholars both in China and abroad study literary translation including drama translation in light of linguistics:Vermeer's Skopos theory, Nida's functional equivalence theory, Newmark's semantic translation theory, Bassnette's semiotics theory, etc are all applied to drama translation. However, drama is not only literary creation, but also the centralized embodiment of stage art and performing art. Therefore, it is partial to place drama translation merely in the linguistic range of research. Translation, as a language art, must reproduce the artistic beauty of the source text.Since translation aesthetics is applied to literary translation, a great number of scholars have studied literature translation from the perspective of translation aesthetics. Comparative Aesthetics On Literature Translation(Xi Yongji,1992), Practical Translation Aesthetics (Fu Zhongxuan,1998), Aesthetic Progression In Literature Translation (Jiang Qiuxia,2002), Introduction to Translation Aesthetics (Liu Miqing,2005), and Translation Aesthetics (Mao Ronggui,2005) discuss the aesthetic approach to translation from different angles. However, these literatures discuss a lot on novel and poetry translation, but there are few literatures touching upon drama translation from the perspective of aesthetics. Therefore, based on Liu Miqing's translation aesthetics theory, the present paper makes a comparative study of the two Chinese versions of Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, one of which is translated by Yu Guangzhong, and the other by Zhang Nanfeng. Oscar Wilde is the key representative of British aestheticism. The Importance of Being Earnest is his masterpiece. This play is full of witty and humorous language, finest epigrams and paradoxical expressions which pose great challenge to translators. Yu Guangzhong's and Zhang Nanfeng's translations make good use of the advantages of Chinese language, and ingeniously reproduce the artistic beauty of the Source Language. Hence taking their versions as study object is more representative.The present paper studies the reproduction of aesthetic constituents in drama translation from two aspects:aesthetic subject and aesthetic object. In introduction, the author explicates the research background, research questions, research method, and significance of the study. In chapter one, the author first discusses the dual nature of drama, the characteristics of dramatic text, and subsequently reviews the studies of drama translation both in China and abroad. In chapter two, the author traces back to the aesthetic source of Chinese and western translation theory and compares the similarities and dissimilarities of Chinese and western aesthetic theory concerning translation. In chapter three, the author introduces Liu Miqing's translation aesthetics theory, and discusses the feasibility to apply the theory into drama translation practice. In chapter four, the author makes a comparative study of reproduction of aesthetic constituents in the two Chinese versions of The Importance of Being Earnest, and concludes that translation as an aesthetic activity cannot thrive without the interaction between aesthetic subject and aesthetic object. The translators must transfer the aesthetic constituents in the dramatic text at maximum by bringing their initiative and creativity into full play. In the conclusion part, the author answers the research questions posed in introduction, pointing out that the aesthetic constituents can be reproduced in the target language. In transferring the aesthetic constituents, the translators will be constrained by the translatability of the formal beauty of the source language, the cultural differences, the stage art, etc. The translators are able to bridge various obstacles in that they can bring their subjectivity into full play and successfully transplant the romantic charm and the spirit of the source language into the target language. Hence in drama translation, the aesthetic object (dramatic text) and the aesthetic subjects (the translator, the readers and the audience) have a dialectical relationship, for they are interdependent on and interrelated to each other. On one hand, the existence of object is the prerequisite of aesthetic feelings. The translators as the aesthetic subject of the source language, must try all means to transfer the aesthetic constituents to the target language by exert their talent and creativity. On the other hand, given the dual nature of drama as a genre of literature and a performing art, the translators must at all times put the readers in mind and take into account the audience's aesthetic expectation and receptive capability at the same time.