A Translation Report On The Body Reader (Chapter 1-3)

With frequent international exchanges and the constant open policy to the outside world,a large number of foreign literary works have been introduced into China,and of all foreign literary works,detective novels enjoy a great popularity,because they feature the characteristics of concise expressions,attractive plot and tense atmosphere,which are well appreciated by Chinese readers.Despite a large proportion in the book market,the Chinese versions of many detective novels often fail to meet the Chinese readers’ demand.The reason lies in the fact that translation is a cross-cultural communication,and the translation of detective novels which is derived from literary translation not only conducts the function of entertainment,but also carries out the mission of promoting communication and cooperation among countries.This is not an easy task because it is the features of detective novels that make themselves fascinating,and these features result in much difficulty in the translation of detective stories as well.Therefore,the handling of these features is of great importance in the translation of detective novels.The Body Reader,which is written by American novelist Anne Frasier and one of the best-sellers in 2016,belongs to the detective novel.The story’s splendid description,surprising plot setting,and horror atmosphere all leave a deep impression on the target readers.What translators should do is to retain the original features and messages in order to enable the Chinese target readers to obtain the same reading experience as the source language readers.Thus,apart from some details,theoretical guidance in the translation of detective novels is of great use as well.This thesis is based on the translation practice of The Body Reader,and functional equivalence theory proposed by Eugene A·Nida is applied in this translation practice.According to the functional equivalence theory,much attention should be paid to the combination between form and content,and sometimes the meaning of the original text should be given priority to.There is no doubt that functional equivalence theory would play an important role in tackling the translation problems,keeping the flavor of original work as well as helping the target language readers comprehend the aesthetic values.Under the guidance of functional equivalence theory,the thesis makes a probe into the application of various translation methods from the perspective of lexical level,syntactic level and stylistic level in the translation of detective novel.This translation practice is expected to provide some references for the field of detective novel translation.