The Level Of Discourse As A Unit Of Translation

Virginia Woolf is one of the representatives in the school of stream of consciousness.After her works came into China,there are at least 8 Chinese versions so far contributed by different translators.But problems are detected in the translation.Therefore,in this paper the mis-translated aspects in the novel of stream of consciousness are summarized.The complicated stream of consciousness was constructed by discourses that contain the author's purposes.One of the goals of translating the novel of stream of consciousness is to manifest these purposes.In which the most difficulty is to identify and keep the mark of the stream when translating.This paper has conducted a comparative study on the Qu Shijing's and Ma Ainong's translation of To the Lighthouse with its original by discourse analysis.This paper argues that the marks of stream of consciousness are constructed by the choice of punctuation,elimination and the choice of pronouns.The marks lead to the flow of consciousness,which brings the transition of context.Therefore,the prior task for the translator is to find out t he marks and understand the purpose contained in it,and then to reconstruct them by the translation.The strategy of translating the novel of stream of consciousness is put forward in this paper that is to conduct the direct translation on the level of discourses.In this case,the translator shall recognize the marks of flow by discourse analysis and to rebuild them in the translations.According to the strategy,specific methods are to keep the punctuation purpose,duplicate the elimination,and chose the same pronoun in the originals.Through the above three methods,the reader's sense of vision and reading rhythm will be influenced,and the natural transition of two contexts then will be constructed.This paper puts forward the relative specific operation method,and argues that discourse analysis is an important tool towards the translation of the novel of stream of consciousness,which offers a new tool for the future translation.