A Report On The E-C Translation Of I’ll Be Gone In The Dark(Excerpts) In Light Of George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion

This practice report is based on the E-C translation of the excerpts of the first part of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,which is written by Michelle McNamara about her obsessive search for the Golden State Killer.The book is a nonfiction book and is a composition of dozens of unsolved murder cases committed by the Golden State Killer.The book is mainly about the results of Michelle’s investigations on those cases,which is clear in logic and detailed in the description of cases.Michelle’s eager to unmask the murderer can easily be found between the lines,thus her words are full of emotions.Also,the description of cases and people in the book can be regarded as an epitome of American society at the end of the 19th century.The report is written in light of Steiner’s hermeneutic motion.Translation theorist George Steiner proposed that translation activities can be divided into four steps,which are trust,aggression,incorporation and restitution."Trust" means that the author "trusts" the source text before translation and believes the text is worthy translating;"aggression" means the author’s cultural background will lead to the change of rhetoric or structure reorganization;then in the process of expressing the meaning of source text in Chinese,the author made some conversion of the voice and meaning to "incorporate";finally,the author made "restitution" to balance the source text and target text after the first three steps.Based on the source text,the author analyzes the "trust" of the source text during the translation process;the conversion of rhetoric and the application of "four-character" in the process of "invading" to the source text;the application of active voice and the domestication of meaning in the process of”incorporation";and the appropriate addition of modifiers and conjunctions in the process of "restitution".Based on Steiner’s hermeneutic motion in translation,the report analyzes how Steiner’s hermeneutic motion performs in translation activities with specific cases.This report is divided into five parts.It firstly introduces the task background,source text and the significance of task.Secondly,it describes the preparation of the translation process,analyzes the features and difficulties of the source text and describes the modifications after translation.Thirdly,it introduces the origin and the development of hermeneutic theory,and makes specific introduction to Steiner’s hermeneutic motion.Fourthly,it analyzes the four steps of Steiner’s hermeneutic motion with case studies.Finally,it summarizes the gains and limitations in the author’s translation practice.The author hopes the study of Steiner’s hermeneutic motion in the report can provide part of the support for future study in this field and also for future translation of the book.