On The Narration And Description In Suspense Fiction Translation From The Perspective Of Translation Shift Theory

In recent years, many works with different themes and forms have blossomed in Chinese literary market, and among which the suspense fiction is becoming so popular that it attracts more people, at home and abroad, to join in the research and creation about it. Although large numbers of excellent works having been published in China today, there is still a certain gap between China and European countries where the suspense fictions are in a dominant status. In order to develop the research and creation about suspense fiction in China, the communication and exchange among countries should be strengthened. And during this process, translation will play a significant role as a bridge and the quality of translation will determine whether the suspense works can be understood and exchanged in a better way.Suspense fiction is a kind of popular fiction. The plot is one of the most important elements that decide whether the fiction is successful. About the suspense fiction, it mainly focuses on the tense story, which can be achieved by narrating and describing. To ensure that readers can read fluently and experience the suspense in tension atmosphere, it is significant for translator to do well in the narration and description of detailed information. And the introduction of translation shift theory can help to guide the translation. Lots of western scholars had studied on this theory, but J.C.Catford has the largest influence. He put forward his theory about translation shift in 1960 s in his book A Linguistic Theory of Translation. He thought that shift is the most basic method of translation and referred that we should admit the rationality of translation shift only if we recognize the fact that the language we used to express thoughts and ideas is different in nature. At the same time, he divided translation shift into level shift and category shift.Last to Die belongs to suspense fiction, written by American novelist James Grippando, which was also one of the most popular best-seller. In the English version of this work exists large sums of dialogue and narration that full of odd plots and suspense. But how to lead readers to understand the original meaning and tension atmosphere from the translated works,it needs the translation shift theory to guide the practice. In this thesis it mainly discusses the application of this theory in the narration and description of suspense fiction, which is expected to provide some reference for its future writing and translating career.