On Translation Of Deviation In Lolita From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Deviation plays a very prominent role in literary texts. Nabokov is a master of language and Lolita is generally regarded as his best English work. As one of the most allusive and linguistically playful novels in English, deviations are abundant in Lolita, so it is evidently that the translation of the book cannot be an easy task. This paper chooses three representative Chinese translations of Lolita: they are Huang Jianren’s, Yu Xiaodan’s and Zhu Wan’s versions respectively, and deviations in this book are categorized into four types according to their different stylistic functions, which are including: deviation for characterization, deviation for psychological presentation, deviation for jocular effect and deviation as thematic hints. Nida’s functional equivalence theory is introduced to analyze the translation of deviation in Lolita. Examples of different deviations are presented and analyzed in detail, to see if functional equivalence is achieved in the translation, and methods of translating various deviations in Lolita are also summarized in this thesis, including literal translation, zero translation, paraphrase, and imitation. It is hoped that via this paper, the translation of deviation will obtain more attention, thus improving the quality of translation.