A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Ulysses Under The Guidance Of Relevance Theory

Ulysses,published in the early 20th century,is not only the most representative work of Joyce but also one of the most classic works of modernism.Joyce creatively uses a variety of styles.As a means of language,these styles have the essential functions of expressing the theme of the work and displaying the image of the characters.Whether these unique styles can be embodied in the translation is also the key points to the success of a version.At present,Jin Di's version and Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo's version are the two most influential Chinese versions in China.Therefore,it is necessary to study the translation of these two versions from the stylistic perspective.As a mature theory,Relevance Theory has been widely used in various translation studies because of its powerful explanatory capacity,among which,it has exerted a profound impact on the study of literary translation.By using Gutt's Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory and Boase-Beier's relevance-based perspective on the translation of literary style,this thesis makes a comparative study of the two Chinese versions of Ulysses.Firstly,from the perspective of Relevance Theory,the thesis makes a comparative study on the translation of rhetoric devices and styles of the two Chinese versions.Rhetoric devices include metaphor,parody,alliteration and rhetorical repetition,and styles include stream-of-consciousness style,poetry style,journalese and impersonal style.Secondly,through the comparison between the two versions of sample texts about the above aspects,the degree of contextual effect presented by the two versions,the processing effort of the target readers,as well as the achievement of optimal relevance in the two versions are all evaluated.Finally,through comparative study,this thesis summarizes the different effects of different translation strategies such as literal translation,free translation,omission,zero translation,and re-creation,and discusses what translation strategies should be adopted to achieve optimal relevance in different situations.After a comparative study,it is discovered that in order to keep the style of the source text and make the target text readers get the great contextual effect,the literal translation is more advantageous.For the shortcomings of the two versions,the author also puts forward her own suggestions.Through the study,this thesis further proves the effectiveness of Relevance Theory in guiding literary translation.It is hoped that this thesis can provide some reference for the translation study of Ulysses.