Political Words And Expressions In Half Of Man Is Woman And Their English Translation

Half of Man is Woman, written by the well-known contemporary writer Zhang Xianliang, is a representative novel set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In the novel, we can find a large number of political words and expressions related to the Cultural Revolution, which truly reflect the social and political life at that period of China and also bring some difficulty for the English translation to some extent. The English version translated by Martha Avery made a great effort to introduce the Chinese literature and the unique political culture at that special period to English readers. Therefore, a close look at the political words and expressions and their translation has important practical significance and can serve as an example for the translation of political words and expressions.This thesis first reviews some related researches on political words and expressions. Then through different scholars'explanation and classification on political words and expressions in the Cultural Revolution, this thesis analyses the characteristics of political words and expressions related to the CR: deep social and political background and rich cultural connotations. According to these characteristics, the political words and expressions in Half of Man is Woman are divided into five categories: political abbreviations, political slogans, political dialects, political identities and political products.In light of the translation principles of faithfulness and Nida's equivalency, political words and expressions in Half of Man is Woman were classified in five categories respectively with their translations, and the translation strategies adopted by the translator for each category were discussed. The translator mainly applied six translation strategies in translating the political words and expressions in the novel: literal translation, annotation, explanation, substitution, amplification and omission. Among these six strategies, literal translation is the most frequently used strategy and amplification and omission are the least frequently used.Through statistical analysis on translation strategies adopted by the translator for different categories of political words and expressions and the frequency of using each translation strategy, we can find that each strategy has its advantages as well as disadvantages and all the translation strategies are helpful to translate political words and expressions as long as they are used properly. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis on the translation of the political words and expressions, as well as implications and limitations of the research.