G¨¹nter Grass's "crab" Translation Analysis

This thesis focuses on the Chinese translation of the latest novel Im Krebsgang of Günter Grass, the winner of the Nobelpreis for literature in 1999, and thus conducts a case study in the area of translation criticism. It firstly reflects about the adequate method to fulfill this task, which is of theoretical significance. Based on an overlook over the new trends in translation studies in recent years and a brief description of the two different kinds of translation criticism, the prescriptive one and the descriptive one, this thesis chooses the framework of the skopostheory, which began to gain influence since the nineteen eighties and owns both prescriptive and descriptive characters, as the theoretical starting point. Furthermore, it managed to build an open model of working steps in translation criticism.Instead of applying merely linguistic or literary methods for the analysis , this working model starts from the translational point of view. It also differs from pure prescriptive researches, which judges the translation through some criterions preferred by the author. It takes the whole process of the translation into account and sets out to find out all the conditions and requirements for the translation through an interview with the translator, because he can only make decisions under these conditions. It turns out that Günter Grass, the author of the original, forbids any footnote in the translated text, which makes the phenomenon of "cultural default" to the greatest translation problem. As to the other two kinds of translation problems, which are caused by different cultural conventions and language structures, the research comes to the conclusion, that the translator follows the strategy of foreignizing and literal translating. It is then discussed, if these are the correct strategies to fulfill the translation purpose: the skopos adequacy is the highest principle according to the concept of the skopostheory.According to the other two principles of the concept, the translation is also examined under the aspects of intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence, which can also be called the coherence principle and loyalty principle. It is put forward that the examination of the loyalty of a translation should not always take place under the same criterions, but under special ones, which hang together with special features of the original. The successful transfer of these features makes up the main aspect of loyalty. Therefore the examination of loyalty in this case is concentrated on the transfer of narrative elements in the original.Finally, the research comes to the conclusion that the translating strategies of Mr. Cai Hongjun, the translator of Im Krebsgang, are justified and adequate to the translation purpose. The translation is written in a fluent and simple language and succeeded in reproducing the narrative style of the original. However, it also makes suggestions to some problems identified in the translation.