A Study On The Stylistic Reproduction In John Balcom's English Version Of Trees Without Wind In Light Of Stylistic Markedness Theory

Style translation has been a tough issue discussed by translators for a long time.Trees Without Wind,written by the famous Chinese modernist novelist Li Rui,creates vivid portraits of peasants' life in Stunted Flats Village at Shanxi Luliang mountainous areas in the 60s and 70s.Integrating traditional Chinese realism with the stream of consciousness represented by William Faulkner,as well as the idea of "Cultural Consciousness" put forward by the author himself,this book is highly approved for its special narrative techniques and distinct linguistic characteristics.In this case,the author's unique stylistic features became prominent to readers.Once published,this book has received great response from the readers,and was soon translated into French,Swedish,and English.Among them,the popular translated version is the English version translated by a famous American translator John Balcom.Balcom translates this book in authentic,fluent,and spontaneous language.In his translated text,he puts a great emphasis on reproducing the original style of the source textl from various aspects,which makes style reproduction of a realistic significance to study.Stylistics Markedness Theory by Liu Miqing provides a systematic theoretical system to recognize and analyze the style of literary works.The stylistic markers system,in particular,comprehensively analyzes the reproduction of the ST's style in literary translation.It leads to the code-switching model concluded as a means of transmitting the ST style.According to Liu,a comparative parallel textual analysis in the guidance of Stylistic Markedness Theory,is an efficient method to achieve an objective and reasonable evaluation of the style transmission in the translated text.Based on the analysis of the ST's stylistics features and John Balcom's translation theory,the Stylistic Markedness Theory is employed to conduct a descriptive and comparative research of the style reproduction in Trees Without Wind and its English translation.The study is conducted with two objects:to identify the translation methods that the translator adopts in translating the style,and to make reasonable evaluation on it in light of the chosen theoretical framework.According to the study,the findings are as follows:First of all,it is found that John Balcom puts great emphasis on reproducing the ST style in the course of his translation.He strives to reproduce the ST style form linguistic narrative and thematic level.Three code-switching methods of style transmission including corresponding,recasting and decoloring,are found in the TT,among which,however,corresponding and decoloring are most frequently used.The Study on formal markers reproduction shows that Balcom's translation particularly well-reproduced ST's pronominal linguistic features,such as,the sound effect,textual structure and rhetorical devices.On top of that,Balcom achieves a higher level of style reproduction in his translation by reproducing the narration techniques and the author's conscious pursuit in creation spiritually.Secondly,in accordance with the evaluation criteria in Stylistic Markedness Theory,John Balcom's English translation of Trees Without Wind,in general,has not only reproduced ST style appropriately,but also preserved the translator's style.This can be categorized as stylistic-marked translation,which is a preferred situation in transmitting the style.In this case,John Balcom's style reproduction in Trees Without Wind is worthy to be learned from in future outward translation of modern Chinese literature.