On The Poetic Variance Of The English Translation Of Children's Literature—Bronze And Sunflower

Bronze and Sunflower is one of the most world-renowned works in children's literature and its English version remains the best representative of the “going abroad” of Chinese children's literature since it not only makes the author Cao Wenxuan become the first Chinese winner of Hans Christian Anderson Award for children's literature,an award which is praised as “the Nobel Prize” in children's literature,but also makes the translator Helen Wang the winner of the 2017 Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation.Given the marginalized status of children's literature as well as the unsatisfactory and disappointing status quo of the English translation of Chinese children's literature,this thesis aims to conduct a detailed analysis on the translation of this work.The whole analysis is based on “poetic variance”,which is redefined as referring to the fact that,on account of the influence of language,history,culture,ideology and the translators themselves,translators living in the same times or different times,in the process of translation,try to give different interpretations of the source text by means of adopting various translation methods,giving rise to the changes of the translated version on linguistic level and non-linguistic level.In this definition,the concept of “poetics” derives from Lefevere's definition,and “variance” is born of previous scholars' definitions and relevant researches.Based on the newly-defined poetic variance,this thesis makes a comparison between the original text and the translated one from two major aspects——linguistic level and non-linguistic level.On linguistic level,this thesis makes an analysis of the poetic variances of the English version of Bronze and Sunflower on phonological level;lexical level;syntactical level and rhetorical devices.On non-linguistic level,this thesis shifts its attention to the poetic variance from the perspective of cultural elements;children's literary style,poetic variance in reception as well as poetic variance caused by misinterpretation.And in the analysis of each section,this thesis also gives consideration to the influence of poetic variance on the readability;children's delight and literariness.This thesis concludes that in the first place,poetic variance is inevitable in the translation practice of children's literature,and in the translation of Bronze and Sunflower,several forms are concerned in poetic variance,both on linguistic level and on non-linguistic level.Secondly,various translation strategies and methods are adopted by Helen Wang with the purpose of making her translation in accordance with the dominant poetics in English culture.Thirdly,the effects of poetic variance on the children's delight,readability and literariness of children's literature can be positive and negative.Lastly,the “going abroad” of Chinese children's literature still requires more efforts and as for the translation of Chinese children's literature,positive poetic variance on linguistic level is a must;while on non-linguistic level,children's literature should to a large extent maintain the original cultural and stylistic flavor and unfold the distinct spiritual world of Chinese children.