On The Switching Roles Of Translator In Translating Western Fantasy Literature

With the cultural turn in translation theory studies, the practice of translation hasalso changed accordingly. Yet no strategy is so perfect as to be applicable to every text,or every sentence in a text. Therefore, the translation of a text could be handled withthe combination of different translation strategies. So are the translations of westernfantasy literature. This thesis intends to discuss the translation of western fantasyliterature through case studies of A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin and itstranslation in Chinese by Qu Chang and Tan Guanglei.Owing to the characteristics of western fantasy literature, this thesis analyzes theapplication of translation approaches according to the three types of narration inwestern fantasy literature: narrations relevant to shared experience of Chines andwestern readers, culture-loaded words and expressions, and fantasy-characteristicwords and expressions. And through the flexible use of different translation strategies,we can find that the role of the translator is not static, but changing.In light of this, this thesis tries to find out some patterns for the seeminglyintangible role that the translator plays by summarizing the application of sametranslation approach for the same type of narration.First, for the narration familiar to readers, which is about the shared experienceof western and Chinese readers, the translators take the approach of domestication andstay "invisible". The repeated use of four-character idioms and the paratactic sentencestructure in Chinese makes the fantasy story easier to understand.Then, for the narration characteristic of western culture, which is familiar to thereaders of the ST but quite foreign to Chinese readers, the translators try to keep the"original flavor" of the ST. Here the translators become "visible" by employing thestrategy of foreignization to remind readers of a culture different from their own.Last but not least, for the fantasy-characteristic narration, which is unfamiliar toreaders in both western countries and China, the translators play out their subjectivityand produce a "creative" translation. This is different from the strategy of liberaltranslation in that the subjectivity of the translator often demonstrates his/her thorough consideration of the meaning of the ST and the readers’ response. Thesubjectivity of the translator emphasizes not only the preservation of the alienness offantasy literature, but also readers’ acceptability and understandability of the plot.This thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One is the literature review of thestudy. It begins with the introduction to the definition and characteristics of westernfantasy literature, and the three types which decide the specific role of the translator.The later part of Chapter One focuses on the previous studies on the role of translator,mainly about the "invisibility","visibility" and subjectivity of the translator. ChapterTwo centers around the text to be analyzed---A Game of Thrones as fantasy literature.Chapter Three takes examples from the translation of A Game of Thrones, analyzingand demonstrating how the translator’s strategies and his/her role help produce thedesirable translation according to the three types of narration. The last chapterconcludes this thesis, reporting the findings, implications and the limitations of thethesis. Also some suggestions on the future study of fantasy literature study arediscussed in this part.