On Translator’s Role In The Light Of Narratology

As a literary genre, fiction is rich in narrative features and boasts different characteristics in terms of its narrative types, narrative elements and narrative styles. In interpreting and translating a fiction, the translator should not only take into consideration the linguistic differences between the source text and the target text, but he or she also ought to grasp accurately the intentions of the narrators and narrative features of the source text. Taking a narratological perspective, the translator serves as the implied author of the fiction on one hand, who tries hard to fully express the value orientations and intentions of the fictional texts. On the other hand, he or she also thinks or behaves as the implied reader of the fiction, namely, assuring that the translated texts meet the aesthetic demands and cultural habits of target language readers through cultural decoding. However, in the real translation practice, it is usually difficult for a translator to strike a balance between the former and the latter; this results in translated texts of different styles, this proves that the translator plays a vital role in the translating process; this is the foundation of fiction translation criticism.This thesis attempts to apply some important concepts of narratology such as the implied author, the implied reader and narrative modes to fiction translation practice and translation criticism. Through the analysis of the relationship between the translator and narrative elements that play a significant part in the interpretation of the source text and the reproduction of the translated texts. As the translator’s role is usually influenced by his subjectivity and the restraints of other factors, different translational strategies naturally leads to different translated texts, by taking a narratological approach to fiction translation studies, it contributes to building a more scientific and objective standard for translation criticism and researches. Based on the narrative theory, this thesis carries out a comparative study between Roberts’ and Taylor’s English translations, probing that there are apparent differences between these two translators in terms of their translation intentions, motives and strategies as well as different roles they play in the translating process. Roberts’translated text is much closer to the implied author of the source text, while Taylor’s English version gets much closer to the implied reader of the translated text. Both of them boast their own characteristics, while the distance between the translator, the implied reader and the implied author could not be treated simply as the standard for judging the quality of translated texts. Except for the textual factors, a relatively objective analysis should also be carried out concerning the translator’s cultural literacy, language competence and thinking habits as well as the circumstances they lived, etc. Through a comparative analysis of these two translated texts, it arrives at the conclusion that translation studies can not be limited to the linguistic aspect. It should be turned to the textual aspect. The application of narrative theory to the analysis of fiction translation can effectively avoid the impressionistic or objective tendency to fiction translation criticism, it can provide a more reliable standard for translation studies.