An Analysis Of The English Version Of The Earthen Gate From The Perspective Of Functional Translation Theory

Jia Pingwa is a widely influential writer in contemporary Chinese literature and one of the earliest contemporary Chinese writers to enter the international arena.The Earthen Gate is a novel written by Jia Pingwa in 1996,which talks about the struggle between the village and the city,and tells about the pain of Benevolent Lenient Village in the process of urbanization.Without writing about his consistent rejection of the city and the desire for the village as before,Jia Pingwa rationally analyzes the decaying way of life in the city and the conservative attitude of the country.Such a literary work advancing with the times is difficult to translate.The angle from which the translator interprets will ultimately determine what kind of translation the translator will achieve.The English version of The Earthen Gate was completed by the team of Professor Hu Zongfeng of Northwest University,and was published by Valley Press in November 2017.The translation is the only English version of The Earthen Gate.This thesis takes the three main principles of functional translation theory as the theoretical guidance,summarizes and analyzes some examples in the English version of The Earthen Gate,and explores the translation methods from three aspects,that is: the translation methods of The Earthen Gate based on principle of skopos,principle of coherence,and principle of fidelity.Through the above analysis,the thesis draws the conclusion that following these three principles can not only maintain the Chinese characteristics of the original text,but also makes the work closer to the readers on the basis of the original text,so as to make the English version of Chinese literary works get more international recognition.Based on the practice of translation,this study of the English version of The Earthen Gate by summarizing and analyzing examples,combined with the translation methods under the functional theory,is expected to be of certain reference value to the translation works of Shaanxi writers in the future.