A Study Of Ren Rongrong’s Translation Strategies From The Perspective Of Translation As Adaptation And Selection

Childhood is quite an important period in one’s life. Children’s literature has profound impact on cultivating children’s linguistic ability, reading ability and cognitive ability, and it also fosters children’s imagination and creativity. There are a great many prominent translators and writers of children’s literature in China. Ren Rongrong is one of them. Previous researches on his translation strategies usually focused on some specific aspects such as the wording, the reservation of children’s delight, and so on. Integral research on this theme is insufficient to some degree.Hu Gengshen, a Chinese scholar, applies the basic concept of Darwin’s “natural selection” into translation studies and proposes the theory of Translation as Adaptation and Selection. Here translation is defined as a selective activity in which the translator should adapt to the translational eco-environment. Translational eco-environment refers to the collection of various factors that exert influences and constraints on a translator’s adaptation and selection. It can be divided into inner translational eco-environment and outer translational eco-environment. The former includes the translator’s needs and competence; the latter refers to such factors as the source text, the target readers and so on. According to Translation as Adaptation and Selection(shortened as TAS hereafter), the translator’s translation activity is constrained by the translational eco-environment. If a translator does not fully adapt to the translational eco-environment in the translation process, it is hard for him or her to produce successful translation.Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an excellent foreign children’s work. There have been at least six Chinese versions of this book since 1980. As time goes on, some unfavorable versions gradually die out from the market whereas Ren Rongrong’s version enjoys more and more popularity, which is thought-provoking. From the perspective of TAS, by means of documentary research and on the basis of the analysis of more than 20 examples, this thesis aims to explore how Ren Rongrong produces a Chinese version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with enduring vitality. According to the detailed analysis, Ren Rongrong’s decision on translating Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is mainly out of his adaptation to his needs. Meanwhile, his bilingual and bicultural competence, familiarity with children’s literature and rich experience in translating children’s literature enable him to successfully translate this novel into Chinese. In the specific translation process, taking relative factors in the translational eco-environment of children’s literature into consideration, Ren Rongrong makes proper selection of translation strategies, realizes adaptive transformation from the source text to the target text, and produces a version with enduring vitality. From the linguistic dimension, Ren Rongrong pays great attention to the vividness of the language and mainly applies reduplicated words, onomatopoeia and modal particles. He’s inclined to use short sentences and employ proper addition, and attaches much attention to the rhyme of the text. From the cultural dimension, he mainly adopts the domesticating strategy. From the communicative dimension, he has a deep understanding of the intention and emotion of the original text and transfers them into the target text.Through the study of Ren Rongrong’s translation strategies, it is hoped that this thesis can provide some effective E-C translation strategies for the translators of children’s literature. Meanwhile, it is also expected that this study will be of some academic value for the further study of Ren Rongrong’s translation activities.