On The Style Reproduction In The Englishment Of Hulanhe Zhuan From The Perspective Of Liu Miqing’s Style Translation Theory

The style reproduction of literary works has been a controversial issue in translation studies for a long time. The main bone of contention is the translatability of a style and the method to reproduce the style in translation. At the present time, most scholars in translation circle agree that the style of literary works is translatable, so they shift their attention to how to properly reproduce the original style. In this regard, Liu Miqing(1999: 220) believed that the style features of works could be perceived by stylistic markers system including formal markers and non-formal markers. Therefore, when we’re engaged in translating, we should not only pay attention to the formal marks but also to the non-formal markers so as to reproduce the style comprehensively.This paper takes Xiao Hong’s Hulanhe Zhuan and its English version translated by Goldblatt as an example to study the style reproduction of C-E translation of novels. First, this thesis makes an overview of the previous studies on style and style markers, and introduces Liu Miqing’s viewpoints about style translation, especially his style markers system, which lays a theoretical foundation for the discussion afterwards. Then, based on the actual situation of Hulanhe Zhuan itself and its English version, this paper concretely analyzes the style reproduction of the English version of Hulanhe Zhuan via formal markers and non-formal markers and the three major translation methods of style translation adopted by the translator. Finally, on the basis of the previous texts, the paper summarizes the feasibility of Liu Miqing’s styletranslation theory applying to style translation of novels, and points out translators should employ proper translation methods to improve the adaptability of the style of the translation for its original one, and to ensure the quality of the translation.The research comes to the following three conclusions. First, the language of Hulanhe Zhuan is localized, prosaic, poetic, colloquial and childish, and the novel’s ways of expression, quality of the work, and temperament of the writer are also distinctive, which constitute the unique style of the novel. To improve the readability and acceptability of the translation, the translator should lay emphasis on the style reproduction of the original style. Second, the translator mainly adopts three methods of style translation to better reproduce the original style,namely, corresponding, recasting, and decolouring. Third, the English version has reproduced the original style by and large. However, due to linguistic and cultural differences between English and Chinese, there are indeed some inconsistencies of the style between the English and Chinese versions from a microscopic perspective. This research finds that applying Liu Miqing’s style translation theory, particularly his stylistic markers system to translation is conducive to improve the degree of style reproduction. Translators who are engaged in translation should pay attention to analyze and reproduce the original style via both formal markers and non-formal markers with appropriate methods, so as to improve the quality of translation.