Stylistic Features Of Raymond Carver's Short Stoties And Their Reproduction In Chinese Versions

Raymond Carver is one of the most acclaimed American short story writers in the second half of the 20 th century.Carver's oeuvre contains 6 collections of short stories and 6 collections of poems,but he mainly stands out as a short story writer.Carver is best known for the label of “Minimalism” and is credited with revitalizing the American tradition of Realism and Impressionism.Although the term “Minimalism” cannot comprehensively define the style of the works of Carver,it is a key word that cannot be bypassed in the translation studies of Carver's works,which are hailed by many famous Chinese writers.The introduction of Carver into China started since 1980 s and 1990 s but has not attracted much attention in the Chinese academia back then.With the prevalence of the Internet,translation is no longer exclusively entitled to translators who specialize in this field but rather a practice undertaken by many literary lovers who are empowered by online literary platforms.In Carver's translation and introduction into China,Douban Raymond Carver Club and the ardent Carver fan and amateurish translator “Xiao'er”(the pseudonym of Tang Wei)have made great contributions.A discussion atmosphere based on translation,appreciation and analysis has been formed in this club,which has promoted the acceptance of Carver's works and the development of Carverean studies in China.Certainly,online translations still need to be examined by the public after publication,especially the reproduction of Carver's “minimalist” style.No matter what the connotation of “Minimalism” is,the style of Carver's short stories represented by this term is the most precious “literariness” of Carver's works.This thesis selects two of the most critical short stories in Carver's writing career,namely “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love” and “Cathedral”,for stylistic analysis and translation comparison.The reason behind is that these two short stories are widely acknowledged as examples of the transformation of Carver's minimalist style from the most representative to the least revealing.This thesis capitalizes on the relevant concepts of Liu Miqing's Stylistic Markers Theory to assist the study on Xiao'er's translations.It mainly answers the question of whether and how the translations of Xiao'er have reproduced the stylistic features and whether they have reflected the transformation of Carver's style.In the research,other translators' translations are also closely scrutinized in order to seek a better way of style reproduction,providing a certain theoretical support for later translation practices.The most ingenious feature of Carver's works lies in the style.The study on the reproduction of the stylistic features in the translated versions will also contribute to the translation and introduction of Carver's works into China.