A Report On The E-C Translation Of The Drama Top Girls

Drama translation is a branch of literary translation,which is not a mainstream nowadays in translation business but its role in cross-cultural communication is still indelible.The translation program of Top Girls is a piece of work written by the contemporary British playwright Caryl Churchill in 1982.This report excerpts the third scene of the second act and the third act as the focus for study.The translation report analyzes and summaries the linguistic features as well as the emotional characteristics on the basis of the review of the translation procedures.It also gives some examples for the solutions to the translation difficulties caused by logical disorder and emotion intensification of dramatic language with reasonable observance or violation of the four Maxims under the direction of the Cooperative Principle.The Cooperative Principle is a contribution of Pragmatics,which ensures the conversations go smoothly and conveys the purpose of communication clearly.In the source text(ST),slang,dialogue incompletion and interruption that are frequently presented,which can easily arouse the receptors' misunderstanding;and a large amount of dialogues are adopted by some characters to express the emotional intensification so as to evoke the readers' /audience' empathy for their experience or emotions,which finally leads the receptors to reflect on the theme of the play.The author remains the ST text features to the maximum extend,hoping that the translation can meet the requirements of both the target readers and stage performance.The significance of this report is to provide some reference for those who try drama translation for the first time.Meanwhile,the author hopes the study can encourage more translators to attempt the translation of non-mainstream fields so that the whole industry can have a healthier and more balanced development.Last but not the least,Top Girls is a reflection of western feminism.It discusses the sacrifice women have made for career success.The author wishes the translation practice could attract more attention for domestic feminism,which makes it possible for women to balance their career and family life.