Reader-oriented Strategies In The Translation Of English Novels

Novel is a splendid form of literature that has recreation as its original propose and enjoys a history of hundreds of years.Novels can be introduced into foreign cultures and rejuvenated through translation.In this process,a translator should make sure that his readers can understand and enjoy the novel as much as the readers of the original version do.This thesis discusses reader-oriented strategies in the English-to-Chinese translation of The Romantic Adventure of a Milkmaid,a novel of Thomas Hardy that is included in the Yeeyan Gutenberg Translation Project.Based on the stylistic devices of the novel,the thesis analyzes difficulties in its translation that may affect readers’ reading experience,and proposes reader-oriented strategies as solutions to these difficulties.The concept ‘reader awareness’ originated from writing and is used also in other fields today.In China,most of the related researches are about reader awareness in publishing and writing,while that in translation takes up only a small proportion.As the author discovers during her translation of The Romantic Adventure of a Milkmaid,lack of reader awareness can be seen in all the three earlier translations of the novel,taking the form of insufficient explanation of unfamiliar figures,items,and events,and English-influenced Chinese.The thesis consists of three parts.In the first part,it introduces the novel and analyzes its stylistic devices,including massive use of metaphors,colloquial languages,complicated plots and English-language-based information,that may cause difficulties for the translator.The second part is about the definition of reader-orientation,why it is important,and how it is used in the translation of the novel.In the last part,it takes specific sentences and paragraphs from the novel as examples,which are grouped into three categories,and analyses reader-oriented strategies used in the translation and proof-reading of them.The author proposes several translation methods,including exegetic translation,domestication,explicitation,and sentence-order changing,in order to tailor the translation according to the knowledge and language use of the readers.Hopefully,targeted application of these methods can lead to a version more understandable and easy-to-read,and this thesis can become a reference for English-Chinese translation of novels in the future.