A Study Of The Chinese Translations Of O’Neill’s Autobiographical Play Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Eugene O’Neill,the father of modern American drama,is good at exploring the hidden corners of characters.Although his tragedies are often without fierce plot conflicts,the profound insights and revelations of the characters’inner world in his work strongly shock people’s hearts.His autobiographical drama Long Day’s Journey Into Night deeply portrays the self-contradictory and complicated relationship of the Tyrones.It is not only a painful retrospect of the unfortunate history of the O’Neills,but also a vivid description of the common situation of people who are struggling in spiritual dilemma,which embodies the profound meaning and practical significance of this great drama.Translation is also a process in which translators understand and interpret the original text.The complexity and profound implications of the work provide translators with ample space for interpretation.And the comparative analysis of the subtle differences between different translations not only provides readers with new perspectives and possibilities for in-depth understanding of the original text,thereby realizing the cycle of interpretation,but also helps translators to think about more appropriate and natural expressions in English-Chinese literary translationTherefore,according to Eugene Nida’s translation theory,this thesis selects four Chinese translations of Long Day’s Journey Into Night,distinguishing their differences in translations and interpretation of the spiritual conflicts of the original one,in order to gain better understanding of the core meaning of the workThis thesis consists of five parts.The first part is the introduction,which discusses the autobiographical characteristics of Long Day’s Journey Into Night,the research on the original work and the research on translations,and the significance of this selected topic and research methods of this thesis.Chapter one distinguishes differences in translations of the title and the foreword to gain in-depth understanding of the theme and the author’s emotional attitude.Chapter two analyses differences in translations of the characters’ self-contradiction and their complex relationship,for the thorough comprehension of the mental dilemmas of the characters.Chapter three discusses differences in translations of the drama atmosphere description and the connotation of the important images of "fog" and "fog flute".The concluding part briefly summarizes the characteristics and translation tendencies of the four Chinese translations,thereby exploring the difficulties and possibilities of English-Chinese literary translation.