Annotation In Historical Texts Translation From The Perspective Of Thick Translation

This case study is based on the translation of Gary W.Gallagher’s book Causes Won,Lost,and Forgotten:How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War.This book is a rich and concise historical and sociological work,packed with rich information about people,places,battles,history,and cultural context.In the narration of the text,there are not enough explanatory notes to help readers understand the relationship between the characters,historical events and their social influence.Without adequate information about them,it may be confusing for the reader of the translation.Therefore,based on the thick translation theory proposed by American philosopher and cultural scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah and the problems encountered in the translation of Causes Won,Lost,and Forgotten,the translator adopted the annotation strategy to add background information and necessary explanations to the translation.Since the translator only translated the first two chapters,the discussion of annotation in this thesis does not involve prefaces,external explanations and other paratexts.The translator’s annotations can be mainly divided into two categories,one is explicit annotations and the other is implicit annotations.Usually,explicit annotations are footnotes and bracket in-text annotations,which can offer detailed and necessary contextual knowledge for the intended readers.Footnotes are mostly used to explain cultural-loaded words such as names,places,movie titles,and battle names.Since there is a lot of information that needs to be added,the content of the annotation is relatively long,and footnotes are used to provide more background information to readers who are interested without affecting the smoothness of reading.Bracket in-text annotations are mostly used for brief prompts,explanations,and references to information that has already appeared in the context.Since the content of the annotation is short,the translator adds the information that needs to be explained in parentheses directly in the translated text,which does not affect the reading process and can provide effective information,reducing reading obstacles.If this type of information is placed in footnotes,it will waste the reader’s time,and it is more appropriate to present it in the form of bracket in-text annotations.Implicit annotations include amplification and paraphrase.Historical texts have a certain reading threshold,and at many points in the source text there lacks descriptions of historical facts and character positions,which may cause difficulties for readers.Therefore,the translator tries to supplement information of historical facts,character perspectives,views,etc.that is,amplification.The book Causes Won,Lost,and Forgotten is concise but contains rich information.For readers who are not familiar with historical texts,some sentences may be difficult to understand.Therefore,the translator deconstructed,where appropriate,the original sentences and explained the original text,integrating the explanation into the translated text to help readers understand the implied meaning of the original text and make the translated text completer and more fluent by paraphrasing.In summary,this translation commentary selects example sentences from the translated text according to the two categories of explicit annotations and implicit annotations and combines them with an analysis of the specific applications and effects of footnotes,bracket in-text annotations,amplification and paraphrase.It is expected to share the experiences and lessons gained from the translation of Causes Won,Lost and Forgotten so that it can provide new ideas for research in the specific application and value of annotation in similar tasks.