A Report On E-C Translation Of Handbook Of Greek Mythology (Excerpts) Based On Reiss’s Text Typology

As the cradle of Western literature,Greek mythology offers the glimpse of the way of living and thinking,religious belief,outlook on life and worldview of ancient Greeks.Given its significant role in cultural exchanges between China and the West,a large volume of works about Western myths have been translated and introduced into China.Handbook of Greek Mythology is an academic work which incorporates the latest research into the account of Greek myths.As an inheritance and innovation of previous works,it is helpful in deepening people’s understanding of Western culture.This report is based on the E-C translation of the second chapter of Handbook of Greek Mythology under the theoretical framework of text typology proposed by Katherina Reiss.Inspired by Buhler’s categorization of language functions,Reiss classifies texts into four types,namely informative texts,expressive texts,operative texts and audio-medial texts.The source text of this report falls into the informative text,given that the predominant function of the text is to convey the information and opinions about Greek mythology.Therefore,the accurate and complete transmission of information in the source text as well as the readability and fluency of the target text is required to fulfill communicative function of the text.And the difficulties encountered as well as the solutions in translation are summarized at lexical,syntactical and textual levels.At the lexical level,the author of this report discusses the translation of proper nouns and terms about Greek mythology,shift of word class and choice of word meaning.At the syntactical level,the translation of long and complex sentences and sentences with inanimate subjects and parentheses are analyzed in detail.While at the textual level,the author probes into the possibilities of realizing textual coherence and stylistic consistency.This report is expected to provide certain reference for the future translation of the same type of texts.