A Report On C-E Translation Of The Script Of Secret Love In Peach Blossom Spring From The Perspective Of Foregrounding Theory

Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring,as one of the most famous contemporary dramas in China,was created by Stan Lai,a Taiwanese director and playwright.After its premiere in 1986 in Taiwan,the drama caused a sensation in China.In the year of 2015,the drama was performed publicly in USA,also making a stir in American theatrical circle.The drama has long been acclaimed for its unique language features.In the script,there are many linguistic phenomena that deviate from the conventional usages,such as the mix of written and spoken language and a multitude of repetitive and parallel structures in dialogues.In order to better cope with these linguistic characteristics,this thesis employs the “foregrounding” theory as the theoretic guidance to translate the script.As an important concept in stylistics,the term “foregrounding” denotes that a writer does not follow the language rules on purpose and employs deviant expressions in order to realize certain artistic significance,in other words,the “foregrounding” effect.English linguists Geoffrey N.Leech and Michael H.Short put forward the concepts of “qualitative foregrounding” and “quantitative foregrounding” to explain some deviant language phenomena.They believed the qualitative foregrounding could be achieved by eight types of deviation,that is,lexical deviation,grammatical deviation,phonological deviation,graphological deviation,semantic deviation,dialectical deviation,deviation of register and deviation of historical period.Meanwhile,quantitative foregrounding is often formed when certain linguistic items occur in high frequency such as repetitive structures and parallelism.By virtue of the above two concepts,and after conducting a detailed study on Secret Love in Peach Blossom Spring,this thesis has classified some foregrounding features and accordingly,proposed a set of translation strategies to suit such textual traits.The translator believes that using some translation strategies such as literal translation,omission,and addition,the foregrounding features can be translated.With the specific strategies and reflection discussed,it is hoped that this report can enrich the existing research materials concerning drama translation,shedding light on how to apply foregrounding theory to drama translation.