Applving Critical Discourse Analysis To The Translation Of Political Texts

This research intends to draw up a new set of guidelines for the translation of a political text like Rewriting History by combining the theory of critical discourse analysis with translation studies,where the three-dimensional CDA model proposed by Norman Fairclough is used in the ST interpretation and TT production processes.The CDA-based analysis of the source text enables the translator to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the text and is therefore considered a vital step in the whole translation process.By applying the CDA model to translation research,the ST analysis mainly goes through three stages:description,interpretation and explanation.At the first stage(description),the translator should describe its lexical,grammatical and textual features based on a linguistic analysis of the ST.At the second stage(interpretation),from the semantic and pragmatic perspectives,the translator should view the text as a communicative event and focuses on how the event occurs within a particular situational context.At the third stage(explanation),the translator should deem the ST to be a social practice as s/he digs deeper into the socio-cultural environment that has helped shape the practice and investigates the relations between language,power and ideology.For the sake of this thesis,the Author translated two chapters from Rewriting Hisrory and conducted an analysis of eight representative translation cases selected therefrom within the CDA-based analytical framework and under the guidance of semantic translation and translation techniques.The case analysis is mainly centered on three topics:Hillary Clinton's subject position as the former First Lady of the U.S.and a woman political leader as well as the(unequal)relationship between power-holders and the general public.Therefore,the research is aimed at offering new perspectives and references for the translation of political texts.