Relevance Theory As Applied In Popular Fiction Translation

In recent years, foreign popular fiction have been translated and published in a large number. Some of them, such as Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code and Twilight Saga, are well-known to Chinese readers, thus attracting more editors to find foreign popular fiction to publish. A lot of people, English majors or non-English majors alike, are recruited by editors to translate these works of fiction. Some of the translators are highly-skilled and did a great job, whereas others are sluggish. Moreover, there is no specific standard or guidance to assess which translation is good and which is bad. Among the research papers and monographs about literature translation, most are focused on poetry and classic fiction. Obviously, there is a lack of enthusiasm in studying the translation practice of popular fiction.In this thesis, the author will aim at proving that Gutt's relevance-theoretic approach can provide popular fiction translation practice with a theoretical framework, and to give theoretical support to the elimination of translationese which is starting to infest our daily speech and endangering the beauty of our mother tongue Chinese. The author is going to start with introducing the basics about popular fiction, including the role of the translator, and then go on to give a brief summary of relevance theory and Gutt's theory, with some other important hypotheses of communication and comments on several translation insights. After that, introductions of the five works of fiction involved in case studies are being presented, followed by Si Guo's advice on translation practice and case studies in which some examples are taken from the author's personal experience.