Translating English Travel Writings In The Frame Of Reference To Adaptation Theory

Travel writing, as a special literary genre, plays an important role in disseminating culture and promoting tourism; but its translation has not drawn much attention in the field of Translation Studies. This study, on the basis of my own translation practice, has selected more than 30 travel writings from well-known British and American media websites and intends to summarize the strategies and methods in translating English travel writings in the frame of reference to the four angles of investigation of Adaptation Theory.The research finds that in translating travel writings, translators can exercise their discretion in particular contexts, and adapt to target readers’ cultural background differences, aesthetic preferences,psychological needs and linguistic habits, as well as writer’s emotions and intentions, in order to disseminate foreign culture as well as to bring uniqueness and exoticness to readers; translators should adapt to travel writing’s style by highlighting the unique travel experiences, the subjective emotions, the appeal and literary values according to the characteristics and functions of this genre; translators should also make a dynamic adaptation to time, context and structure, and possess cross-cultural awareness, cultural self-consciousness, reader awareness to make choices under high degree of salience. Lastly, the paper has abstracted and distilled the translation methods and techniques in translating travel writings, namely, free translation, variation translation, recreation, explanation, division, combination, shift, etc. to improve the salience of translation consciousness and produce a better translation for readers.