On E-C Translation Of Historical Narrative Texts Under The Guidance Of "Faithfulness,Expressiveness And Elegance"

Historical narrative texts are the main places where people can learn from history.They have the function of conveying historical consciousness and play a crucial role in the entire social practice.In recent years,an increasing number of historical narrative books have been published in China and abroad,which are popular among readers due to their combination of seriousness of history and the fun of reading.The features of historical narrative texts are authenticity,literariness and readability.Historical texts of different linguistic groups together constitute the historical texts of the whole world,so reading histories of different linguistic groups can help people to get a better understanding of the world and learn from history.With the development of globalization,the exchange of different linguistic groups' histories demands translation works.However,research on translation of historical narrative texts in China is still scarce and the content of the studies is relatively limited at present.Compared with translation studies of other types of texts such as literary texts and scientific texts,the research on historical narrative texts isn't systematically enough,and there are still some problems and deficiencies,which also provides the possibility and necessity for the further research.Therefore,the main task of this thesis is to study the translation approach to historical narrative texts which includes basic principles of translation,translation strategies and methods.The thesis adopts qualitative research method,literature analysis,case study and comparative study.Under the guidance of the theory of “faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance”,the thesis takes the best-selling historical narrative text—The Glory and the Dream and its two Chinese versions—the version translated by Wang Zongyan and the version translated by the Translation Group of the College of Interpretation and Translation of Sichuan International Studies University as an example to study the specific approach to the translation of historical narrative texts.By comparing and analyzing the gains and losses of “faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance” in the two Chinese versions,the author finds three major problems in the translation: loss of “faithfulness”—lack of accuracy;loss of “expressiveness”—lack of readability;loss of “elegance”—lack of literariness.To solve these problems,the author proposes three basic principles which should be followed by the translator during the translation process of historical narrative texts with the purpose of realizing the function of historical narrative texts and embodying the features of the texts: firstly,ensuring the accuracy of the text,which is to be “faithful”;secondly,ensuring the readability of the text,which is to be “expressive”;thirdly,ensuring the literariness of the text,which is to be “elegant”.And then the author puts forward that the translator should mainly adopt the strategy of domestication in the E-C translation of historical narrative texts.Moreover,in terms of translation methods,the translator is suggested to employ the methods including paraphrase,idiomatic translation,imitation and annotation.The approach to the translation of historical narrative texts proposed by the author can better overcome both linguistic and cultural differences between Chinese and English,reduce reading barriers for readers as much as possible,and strengthen the accuracy,readability and literariness of texts which is also meet the criteria of “faithfulness,expressiveness and elegance”.The thesis aims at providing some references for the translation of historical narrative texts and diversifying the research on translation practice.It also hopes to optimize readers' choices of historical narrative works.