An Approach To The Translation Of Foregrounding Language In Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh

Eugene O’Neill, the father of American drama, created nearly 50 excellent plays in his lifetime. His plays were translated into Chinese long time ago. Large number of domestic scholars have devoted to the study of Eugene O’Neill and his plays. However, up to now, there are few scholars studying the translating of O’Neill’s plays. In addition, the foregrounding language he used is one of the most outstanding stylistic features in his plays. In view of this, this thesis, based on Geoffrey Leech’s qualitative foregrounding and quantitative foregrounding theory, combines qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze the foregrounding language in one of O’Neill’s famous plays The Iceman Cometh, and then proposes some tentative methods for translating the foregrounding language in drama. It is intended to emphasize the important role that foregrounding language plays in expressing drama’s artistic effects so that to draw translators’ attention to foregrounding language and improve translation quality accordingly.This thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter includes the research background and originality, research questions and purposes as well as the structure of this thesis. Literature Review in Chapter Two carries on the foreign and domestic studies on foregrounding theory, foregrounding language in Drama Translation, studies on drama translation and The Iceman Cometh at home and abroad. Chapter Three introduces Leech’s qualitative foregrounding and quantitative foregrounding theory as well as the concept of deceptive equivalence proposed by Shen Dan. Chapter Four lists some typical examples of foregrounding language and its corresponding translation in The Iceman Cometh, and then makes relevant analysis. The fifth chapter tentatively puts forward some translation methods for translating foregrounding language. In the last chapter, findings and limitations will be given.