Conformity And Discrepancy To Translation Norms

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is one of the brilliant works of T. Hardy, an outstanding realistic writer of Britain in the 19th century famous for his Wessex series novels all over the world. Like his other Wessex works, this novel covers a wide range of foreign culture and customs; besides, nearly all the characters use the Wessex dialect instead of the Standard English, which makes the translation a very tough and demanding job. However, with his excellent translating competence, Zhang Guruo replaced the Wessex dialect of the original with the Shandong one in a creative way, and translated the whole story in idiomatic Chinese faithfully by adopting the strategy of domestication. Furthermore, based on the translation principle of"taking notes before doing translation", Zhang Guruo made 438 notes keeping the characteristics of the foreign language and culture, which initiated a new model to the Chinese translation history of the 1930s, and received a good reputation from the inside and outside of the translation field.By virtue of the translation norm theory of A. Chesterman, this thesis aims to find out and sum up the translation norms of Tess of the d'Urbervilles Zhang Guruo has used by researching on his translation characteristics, and then contrasting them with the dominant translation norms at that time. It intends to find out the similar and opposite points between his translation norms and the dominant ones, disclose the compliances and breaches the translator has made to the dominant norms by his translation, and reveal the influences of the dominant translation norms upon the translator, and the embodiment of the translator's professional traits in his translation. This thesis contains three chapters in all.Chapter one is the introduction of the supporting theory of this thesis. In this chapter, the author expounds the translation norms theory in detail, clarifying the definition of the translation norm, the source, contents, substance, and classifications of the norm theory of Chesterman. The objectively descriptive characteristic of the translation norm theory requires the translation researchers to do their researches under the whole translating background objectively to avoid unfair judgments about the translation works.The second chapter is about the statements and opinions of the most influential translators and translation scholars in the 1920s and 1930s. Based on the Chinese translation status of the two decades, this thesis will conclude its dominant translation norms by virtue of Chesterman's translation norm theory.The third chapter is a comprehensive study about Zhang Guruo's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Through the researches on the translation characteristics of Zhang Guruo by analyzing his translation language and strategies, and by comparing his translation norms and the dominant ones, this thesis concludes that the dominant translation norms would influence the translation behaviors of a certain translator at some extent to make his works comply with the dominant translation expectations of the society, but it is the translator's efforts and professional qualities that make the eternal life of the translation work.