A Study On Representation Of Communicative Clues In Stream Of Consciousness Novels From The Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

In the 1970s and 1980s,the introduction of stream of consciousness novels in China aroused the attention of domestic scholars to western modernist literature.However,most of the translation studies of this genre,so far,have been based on theoretical perspectives such as "stylistics" and "translation aesthetics",focusing more on the relationship between the translator and the target reader.Relevance translation theory considers "translation" as a dual inferential-ostensive commnicative activity,which includes the ternary relationship among "the original author","the translator" and "the target reader".The perspective of "communicative clues" under the theory enables the translator to accurately convey contextual effects in the original to the target readers,and help attain the optimal relevance according to the communicative clues in the original.The combination of "communicative clues"under the relevance translation theory and the stream of consciousness novel,is conducive to the exploration of optimal relevance between the target readers and the source text.Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse has long been recognized as one of her masterpieces of stream of consciousness,describing life of the Ramsays and the guests before and after the war,exploring deeply the themes such as "love" and "the meaning of life".In the book,"indirect inner monologue" and other narrative forms have been the targets for many scholars to do theoretical research in the translation of the work.The perspectives range from the "feminist translation theory" to the"corpus-based comparative translation study",but the study on the work from the perspective of "relevance translation theory",especially from its specific angle"communicative clues",is very rare.Within the perspective "communicative clues" under the relevance translation theory,a comparative case study of two latest Chinese versions of To the Lighthouse by Qu Shijing and by Ma Ainong will be conducted in the way of qualitative analysis.By analyzing the two versions' translating differences concerning the novel's major stream of consciousness techniques like "indirect interior monologue","variable internal focalization" and "montage",this thesis aims to demonstrate the interaction among the original author,the translator and the target reader via access to communicative clues.Thereby,the differences in representing the communicative clues in the two Chinese versions will be explored so as to provide a new perspective for the accurate conveyance of the contextual effects in the stream of consciousness literature.By comparison of differences in sample sentences from the two versions,this thesis finds that with reference to the relevance translation theory,the two contemporary translators,due to their different research fields and literary backgrounds where Qu's accomplishments in the stream of consciousness novels are higher while Ma translates more of the popular fictions,manifest different interpretations of the SOC techniques in this work.The two translations of To the Lighthouse reflect their different language forms and literary connotations.In terms of linguistic features,Qu Shijing's version conveys more accurately the contextual implications in the original's SOC techniques;whereas in terms of syntactic features regarding SOC techniques,Ma Ainong's version renders more thoroughly the original's stylistic effects.Thus it can be inferred that during translation,the translator needs to accurately access the communicative clues in the original to comprehend the original's contextual effects.Then,he needs to represent the clues appropriately to the target readers,to make them better aware of the original's contextual effects,and thereby achieves the optimal relevance with the original.