Thought Presentations And The Translation Of Chinese Fiction Into English

Like speech,thought is another vital element for fiction.Stylists attach equal importance to speech and thought.However,in translation studies,while countless scholars studied the translation of speech,the translation of thought has not received sufficient attention.Given that many prominent translators and scholars claim that one essential task for translators is to recreate the style of the source text in their translations,the application of stylistics in translation is far from being enough.As for translators,although they are fully aware that they should "copy" the style of the source text,they are at a loss when it comes to how to do it exactly.Thus,not only the translation of thought stands in need of in-depth research,the application of stylistics in translation also calls for further attention from translators and scholars.For this translation project,I chose the first chapter of Hua’er yu shaonian 花儿与少年(The Flower and the Youth)by the Chinese American female writer Yan Gelin to be translated.The novel features the shifts of narration between the present and the past which pose no small difficulty to me.Challenging as it is to translators,the novel contains abundant thought presentations which enable me to conduct a feasible research.In this research,I adopt the method of stylistic analysis to explore the stylistic features and effects of the thought presentations in the source text and in my translation.Based on the studies of Geoffrey N.Leech and Michael H.Short in Style in Fiction and Shen Dan in Narratology and the Stylistics of Fiction,I categorize thought presentations into six types:Free Direct Thought,Direct Thought,Free Indirect Thought,Indirect Thought,Narrative Report of a Thought Act,and Ambiguous Thought.After comprehensive analysis of each type for its stylistic features and effects,I reach a conclusion:thought presentations which fall into the same category have similar stylistic effects and ambiguous thoughts in Chinese fiction require clarification when translated into English,according to circumstances.