Children's Literature Translation In Light Of Bakhtin's Dialogism

Dialogism is the core of Bakhtin's theoretical thoughts.Bakhtin believes that to live means to participate in dialogue.Life by its very nature is dialogic,so is thinking.Dialogism focuses on the equal status and individual difference of all parties in dialogue as well as the dialogic openness and unfinalizability.The essence of translation lies in understanding and interpretation,in the communication and interaction among all subjects involved in the translation process.Hence translation itself is dialogic,too.In this way,Dialogism provides the theoretical foundation for the smooth process of the dialogue.The Secret Garden is one of the masterpieces of British writer Frances Hodgson Burnett.It is also a classic children's novel that has hit the best-seller list for almost 100 years.This book is acceptable to both young and old with its humorous,simple and beautiful language.It contains great educational significance: positive thinking is powerful for the return of human nature.This thesis attempts to conduct a comparative study on two Chinese versions of The Secret Garden from the perspective of Dialogism to explore four kinds of dialogic relationships existing in the translation process,aiming to demonstrate the positive effects of equal and interactive dialogic relationships on children's literature translation.In thelight of Dialogism,apart from the translator,other subjects,such as the author,various factors in the source text,the children readers and the illustrator,are the equal and indispensable participants in the process of translating for children.Translators should fully play their subjectivity and creativity to deduce and reproduce the original through the active communication and interaction with all these subjects.When employing Dialogism in the translation process,translators gain not only better understanding of the source text,but also better access to the emotions and intentions of the author,the target readers,the illustrator and the characters.Thus,translators can precisely adopt translation methods and techniques so as to vividly present the beauty of the source text to our children readers.Beyond that,this thesis appeals to translators to abandon“adult authority” and treat children as independent and thinking individuals,giving them the right to perceive the world in their own ways.Translation is a never-ending dialogue concerning understanding and interpretation.Dialogism provides a comprehensive perspective for translators to observe translation phenomena and to deal with various predicaments existing in the translation process.