On The Reproduction Of Literary Style From The Perspective Of Stylistic Markers

An important principle of literary translation is that the translated works should faithfully reflect the original style. Only in this way can the target reader appreciate authentic literary works and experience a variety of cultural features in different countries. Therefore, literary translation can really play its role in cultural transmission. The reproduction of literary style has been one of the most complex and sensitive issues in translation studies. As regards the style, the focus of debate by Chinese and Western translators has always been the translatability of style and how to reproduce the original style if it can be translated. Since literature is the art of language and language is the first element of literature, whether the translatability school or the untranslatability school both acknowledge that the foundation of style reproduction is language. Modern translation theories put more emphasis on the analysis of language texts, trying to figure out specific and definite style elements different from the traditional and illusory interpretation of style. Based on this point of view, Mr. Liu Miqing regards the style as a symbol system which is divided into two categories:formal markers and non-formal markers. In the style reproduction, we should not only pay attention to the formal markers, but also the non-formal ones, making both internal and external reference to wholly achieve the style reproduction.Yu Mi is one of the representative works by a famous Chinese writer Bi Feiyu. This novel tells the story of three sisters during the Cultural Revolution and vividly explores the Chinese family and rural life in that period. With skilled structure, excellent language and bitter sarcasm, this novel shows the superb performance of Bi Feiyu’s language gift and writing skills. Depending on this novel, Bi Feiyu has won the third Lu Xun Literary Prize and the fourth Man Asian Literary Prize.This thesis will conduct a case study of Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin’s version of Yu Mi. Through a detailed analysis of formal markers and non-formal markers of the original style, it studies how the co-translation of Chinese and Western translators better reproduces the stylistic markers in translated works, especially the non-formal markers, in order to achieve the style reproduction of the original works. In Chapter3, various examples are cited and their stylistic markers are analyzed in a way to show how Howard Goldblatt and his wife Sylvia Li-chun Lin reproduce the original style in the target language. Based on the textual analysis in Chapter3, Chapter4makes further efforts to summarize the enlightenment of such co-translation for literary style reproduction. Finally, it arrives at the conclusion:the recognition of stylistic markers (especially non-formal markers) helps the translator to accurately grasp and effectively reproduce the original stylistic features; the co-translation by Chinese and Western translators plays a certain role to reproduce the literary style. It is hoped that this thesis can give a certain enlightenment for Chinese literary to go abroad in the aspect of style reproduction, and can provide some inspiration for the translation scholars and practitioners aspiring to introduce Chinese literary culture to foreign readers.