On Translation Choices For Literary Characters’ Dialogues Measured By Fidelity To The Original Literary Image

With the increasing cultural exchanges between China and the West,Chinese readers have an increasing need to understand the original characters portrayed in foreign literary works.On the one hand,characters’ dialogues play an important role in shaping the images of characters in novels.On the other hand,the plural choices of the translation of character dialogues also bring great challenges to translators.For dialogue translation,in order to effectively convey all the information in the dialogue,translators use different translation methods and techniques,such as the most common free translation,literal translation,omission,amplification,etc.The translation methods of characters’ dialogues are plural,but the plural translation methods are likely to make the translator confused: In the face of different dialogue situations,which translation choice is more appropriate? Therefore,based on fidelity to the original literary images,this thesis discusses how to choose translation strategies and methods for the characters’ dialogues in different situations.Based on the three Chinese versions of The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald,this thesis mainly adopts the case analysis method and takes the conversational implicature,characters’ emotions,rhetorical techniques and characters’ personalities embodied in the characters’ dialogues as specific discussion points to analyze the translation of characters’ dialogues.To achieve fidelity to the original literary images in dialogue translation is actually to achieve functional equivalence between the target language and the source language,that is,the literary image created by the target language is equivalent to the literary image created by the source language,as well as the target readers’ reaction to the literary image created in the dialogue translation should be similar or consistent with that of the original readers.Therefore,this thesis introduces the theory of functional equivalence,and evaluates the gains and losses of dialogue translation in each version under the guidance of functional equivalence,so as to extract the law of literary dialogue translation.Through a systematic analysis,it is safe to draw the following conclusions: In the process of dialogue translation,in order to achieve fidelity to the original characters’ images and the functional equivalence in translation,domestication strategy and free translation method are the overwhelming choices.1.When characters deliberately violate the cooperative principle to form the conversational implicature,the translator should deeply understand the original text,grasp the real intention behind the interlocutor’s deviation from the cooperative principle,and then consciously convey the real intention into the translation text by appropriate target language and its literal deviations,instead of simply reproducing the content of the original text into the target language.2.When translating the emotions such as indifference,sarcasm,and anger embodied in the characters’ discourse,domestication strategy is the overwhelming choice to transmit the most salient emotions of characters,and the translator should appreciate and analyze the emotions behind characters’ discourse to achieve the functional equivalence.3.For the rhetorical techniques in the dialogue translation,the translation should focus on reproducing the intention of using the rhetorical techniques rather than the rhetorical techniques themselves.The translator should understand the use of rhetorical techniques correctly,and let the culture of the target language readers’ native language stimulate a similar or equivalent post-reading response to the original readers in a naturalized way.4.For the characters’ personalities in dialogue translation,the translator should not stick to the original text and precisely grasp the characters’ personalities in the dialogue,and then use the target language to express the characters’ personalities vividly.It can be seen that although there are many choices for characters’ dialogues translation,the best choices are those that can achieve functional equivalence with the original text,because the more functional equivalence can be achieved,the more conducive to fidelity to the characters’ images.Secondly,no matter what translation strategy(domestication strategy or foreignization strategy),what translation method(literal translation or free translation),or what translation technique(amplification or omission,etc.)the translator chooses,he/she should aim to achieve functional equivalence,otherwise his/her translation choices will not be able to accurately achieve fidelity to the original characters’ images.Theoretically,there has long been a dichotomy between translation strategy and translation method,that is,either domestication strategy and free translation are good,or foreignization strategy and literal translation are good.However,from the perspective of fidelity to the original characters’ images,there is no superiority or inferiority of translation strategies and translation methods,as long as they are conducive to achieving the effect of functional equivalence,they are the best methods.Therefore,this thesis is conducive to getting out of the dilemma of dichotomy of translation strategy and translation method.Practically,although a translator of literary dialogue translation has a variety of choices,he/she is more conscious to make translation choices that can better achieve functional equivalence and fidelity to the original characters’ images,so that the “outgoing” characters do not lose their original images due to improper discourse.