On The Chinese-English Translation Of Qingtong Kuihua From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Translation of children's literature is an integral part of literature translation.Given the different cognitive environment of Chinese and Western child readers,introducing Chinese children's literature to other countries has always been a challenging job.Bronze and Sunflower is the magnum opus of 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Cao Wenxuan.The successful dissemination of Bronze and Sunflower is a landmark in Chinese literary works going global.And it will provide a reference for children's literature going global in the future by studying the English version Bronze and Sunflower.Relevance Theory is a theory about communication.It focuses on cognition and communication.The explanatory power of Relevance Theory towards translation has been recognized by the academia.This thesis aims to study the Chinese-English translation of Qingtong Kuihua into Bronze and Sunflower under the guidance of Relevance Theory.With the adoption of qualitative research method,this thesis takes the Chinese-English translation of Qingtong Kuihua into Bronze and Sunflower as a case study.The thesis studies the translation from the perspective of three concepts of Relevance Theory,namely ostensive-inferential process,cognitive environment and optimal relevance.The research questions are as follows:(1)How does Helen Wang convey the writer's intentions to the target readers in the process of translation?(2)Have children's cognitive environment taken into consideration when she translates the cultural elements?(3)Is optimal relevance achieved in the translation? The conclusions are as follows: Firstly,in different contexts,the translator successfully conveys the writer's intentions by use of the method of addition,which makes the writer's intentions more accurately conveyed in the English version.Secondly,when dealing with the translation of cultural elements such as culture-specific items,the translator fully considers the cognitive environment of the target readers,and adds explanatory information in the translation process for them.Thirdly,optimalrelevance is achieved in the translation.The translator takes cognitive environment,reading interests,habits and expectations of target readers into consideration when dealing with the translation of rhyme,words,discourse,and figures of speech.By use of the methods of addition and omission,the writer's intentions are accurately conveyed in the translation so that the target readers can understand the writer's intentions with less processing efforts.The analysis in this thesis further proves that Relevance Theory is instructive for translation studies of children's literature.It is hoped that this thesis can provide a reference for translation studies of children's literature in China and for children's literature going global in the future.