A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Charlotte's Web From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Charlotte's Web,one of the most eminent children's books of E.B.White,is a classic work of literature with great artistic value.The novel has altogether two Chinese versions in mainland China--Kang Xin's version in 1979 and Ren Rongrong's version in 2008.Both renditions have achieved immense popularity since their publication.Apart from linguistic studies,research on the comparative study of two Chinese versions of Charlotte's Web has been slow to penetrate the field of literary translation studies.Only little work has been accomplished in this area,let alone from the perspective of the adaptation theory.Therefore,this thesis explores the possibility of investigating the two Chinese versions of Charlotte's Web under the guidance of the adaptation theory.Adaptation theory is a pragmatic theory,delineating the use of language as a constant dynamic process of adaptation.As a cross-cultural communicative activity,translation is thus acknowledged to be both a process of choice-making and a process of adaptation.By means of analyzing the examples selected from both Charlotte's Web and its two Chinese versions,the thesis is intended to demonstrate how the two Chinese versions of Charlotte's Web make adaptations with reference to the four angles of the adaptation theory--the contextual correlates of adaptability,structural objects of adaptability,and dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation process.First,as for the contextual adaptation in the two Chinese versions of Charlotte's Web,comparisons are made in relation to the adaptation to physical world,social world and mental world.Second,concerning the structural adaptation,the thesis expounds on the adaptation to the original style as well as the essential utterance-building ingredients embodying the adaptation at the phonetic,lexical and syntactic level.Third,in the dynamic adaptation,the thesis compares the dynamic adaptation to the temporal background and the distinct linguistic channels.At last,in terms of the salience of adaptation in the two Chinese versions,the thesis is concerned with the salience regarding the translators' purposes and the readers' responses in the two renditions.Through the comparative analysis of the two Chinese versions of Charlotte's Web from the adaptation theory,the thesis leads to the ensuing three conclusions.In the first place,by comparing the contextual correlates,structural objects,dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation process in the two Chinese versions,the thesis discovers Ren's version makes better adaptation to both the source text and the target readers' cognitive competence.In the second place,the thesis proves that the adaptation theory does have theoretical and practical value for literary translation studies,in particular,children's literature.The research conducted also confirms the efficacious explanatory power of the adaptation theory to the translation study and thus extends the applicable scope of the adaptation theory.Eventually,from the perspective of adaptation theory,Charlotte's Web and its two Chinese versions are appreciated properly,thus providing theoretical framework for translation studies of other children's literature.