On Two Chinese Versions Of The Great Gatsby: From The Perspective Of Nida’s Functional Equivalence

Functional Equivalence is one of the key translation theories of Eugene A. Nida, a famousAmerican translation theorist. It was formed in the1960’s and introduced to China in the1980’s. Functional Equivalence is different from previous translation theories, which arerestricted to the correspondence between the source language and the target language and studythe translation from the perspective of language transformation. The theory emphasizes thefunctional equivalence and focuses on reader’s response, i.e. the readers of a translated textshould be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the originalreaders did. Functional Equivalence provides a new criterion for translation criticism in termsof a dynamic dimension and thereby exerts a profound influence on the academic circle oftranslation home and abroad.Francis Scott Fitzgerald, an outstanding American novelist in the twentieth century, isregarded as the poet laureate of Jazz Age in America, whose representative work, The GreatGatsby, is regarded as one of the greatest English novels in the twentieth century. For exquisiteexpressions, strong effect and outstanding style of the language, this novel is also very popularwith Chinese readers. Since the first Chinese version of the work was born in the mainland in1983, various versions of the work have emerged and some versions have been even publishedonce and again, while the research on the versions of this classic is not extensive in China.Therefore, taking Wu Ningkun’s and Yao Naiqiang’s versions, two most popular andwell-received versions, for example, this thesis makes a systematic contrast and analysis of thetwo versions from the perspective of Nida’s Functional Equivalence. The aim of the research isnot to point out which of the two versions is better, but to analyze the important role FunctionalEquivalence plays in achieving an equivalence translation and thus confirm the guiding role ofthe theory in the field of literary translation.The thesis firstly introduces The Great Gatsby and research status quo of its Chineseversions in detail and then comprehensively elaborates Functional Equivalence from aspects ofits development, contents and significance and finally carries out systematic research on twoChinese versions of The Great Gatsby in terms of meaning and style by exemplification andcontrast based on Functional Equivalence and thus confirm the guiding role of the theory in thefield of literary translation. An excellent literary translation must achieve functionalequivalence in terms of meaning and style. To meet this requirement, a translator shouldcomprehend the original thoroughly to reproduce lexical meaning, grammatical meaning andrhetorical meaning of the original and master the style of the original to convey the romanticcharm of the original by the closest natural equivalence.