A Tentative Study On The Translation Of Detective Fictions In Light Of Literary Stylistics

Literary translation has always been an important part of translation activities, and a key concern of literary translation is the faithful rendering of literary style. As a bridge between linguistics and literary criticism, literary stylistics explores the thematic meaning and aesthetic values of literary works through the systematic analysis of the linguistic forms. It supplies an effective and feasible approach for the study of the linguistic features in literary texts. In recent years, the stylistic approach, distinguished from the impressionistic approach of traditional literary criticism, has been introduced into the translation field. Literary stylistics has been increasingly applied to literary translation criticism with fruitful results.At the end of the nineteenth century, the detective fiction, a type of popular literature, was introduced into China. The unique literary style has exerted considerable impact on Chinese literary creation and translation. Sherlock Holmes series were translated, and are still being translated, with varying degree of success. The quality of translation, however, is uneven and the criticism on these diverse translations is mainly impressionistic, leaving the readers in confusion about the true style of Sherlock Holmes series. A systematic, detailed comparison of two or more translations in light of literary stylistics is still lacking.Drawing upon literary stylistics, the present thesis gives a detailed analysis of the linguistic features of stylistic significance in three versions of A Study in Scarlet from Sherlock Homes series. After a close comparison of the three translations at the level of phonology, graphology, lexis and syntax, the conclusion is reached that the neglecting of those thematically or aesthetically motivated choices will change the stylistic features of the original text. It is also pointed out that literary stylistics, not only enables the translator to identify and render the literary style, but also provides a feasible theoretical framework for the criticism of literary translation.