（英语语言文学专业论文）基于功能对等理论的戏剧翻译——浅析《西厢记》的两个英译本.pdf

1 附件四 上海交通大学 学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下， 独立进行研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外， 本 论文不包含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。 对本 文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在文中以明确方式标明。 本人完全意识到本声明的法律结果由本人承担。 学位论文作者签名：夏廷芳 日期： 年 月 日 2 附件五 上海交通大学 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定， 同意学校保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版， 允许论文被查阅和借阅。 本人授权上海交通大学可以将本学位论文的 全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索， 可以采用影印、缩印或扫 描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 保密，在 年解密后适用本授权书。 本学位论文属于 不保密。 （请在以上方框内打“”） 学位论文作者签名： 夏廷芳 指导教师签名：陈德民 日期： 年 月 日 日期： 年 月 日 1 abstract drama refers to a literary art written for actors to perform on stage for audience. as a good source for exploring a nation s culture, customs, religion, etc., this art can be regarded as a port, where one can get a panoramic view of a nation. as to chinese drama, which has already formed its own features, it is certain to become a treasure of chinese national art. how to introduce/deliver chinese drama to the foreign audience without too much loss of cultural and linguistic flavor should be a central task for translators. however, study of drama translation has been traditionally less explored. the reason may be summarized to its dual nature: a play text that can be read as well as a literary art for stage performance. such dual nature makes the full potential of the text difficult to be realized unless it is put into performance, i.e. theatrical performance is the ultimate fulfillment of translated drama s property. as no universal strategy is applicable for all text types, distinct translation strategies should be applied to different types of texts. therefore, to drama translation, a literary text that is more an art for performance than a pure linguistic art, translators should take its properties of both dramatic text and stage performance property into consideration, in order to embody the particular features of drama. in a word, a successful drama translation should be based on proper linguistic techniques and translators creative strategies in practical translation for the sake of its stage performance property. this thesis aims to discuss chinese drama translation, with nida s functional equivalence theory as a guiding theory and through a systemic analysis of two english versions of chinese traditional classic drama xixiang ji, the story of the western bower by chinese scholar xu yuanchong, and the story of the west wing by stephen west and wilt l. idema. keywords: culture, drama, translation, functional equivalence, xixiang ji, xu yuanchong, romance of the western bower, stephen west, wilt l. idema, the story of the west wing 2 摘 要 戏剧是一种以表演为目的的文学艺术形式。 它可以反映不同国家的文 化， 历史以及宗教等方面的特点。 中国戏剧在漫长的发展过程中形成了自 己独特的风格，堪称中华文学之瑰宝。对于译者来说，如何将中国戏剧中 的文化美以及语言美传达给目的语读者应当成为重中之重。然而，纵观中 外文学史，戏剧翻译这一领域一直鲜有涉及。究其原因，可以归结为戏剧 的两重性：文学性和舞台表演性。这一两重性决定了唯有通过舞台表演， 戏剧的内涵方能得以淋漓尽致的表达， 这与传统的翻译大相径庭。 正如不 同的文学体裁需要采取不同的翻译策略， 戏剧翻译这一独特的文体需要译 者在翻译过程中， 充分考虑其文学性和舞台艺术性， 采取适当的翻译策略。 本文旨在探讨基于功能对等理论， 戏剧翻译中的文化因素如何传递。鉴于 此，文章分析了中国戏剧西厢记的两个英译本，即中国学者许渊冲的 romance of the western bower 和西方翻译家 stephen west 和 wilt l. idema 的 the story of the west wing 。 关键字：文化，戏剧，翻译，功能对等，西厢记，许渊冲，romance of the western bower, stephen west, wilt l. idema, the story of the west wing 3 introduction during the past decades, translation studies have kept on developing rapidly. as an important channel for intercultural or cross- national communication, translation becomes more and more popular among scholars. accordingly, translation theories, translation strategies and cross- disciplinary translations develop beyond our expectation. translation can be sorted into several categories, among which literary translation is always regarded as a most popular field that has attracted much attention from scholars. however, drama translation, a very significant branch of literary translation, is much less explored. without a systemic guiding theory, it has developed very slowly, thus not many works have been written for it. chinese drama is also a literary genre that is closely related to theoretical stage performance. such a property makes chinese drama more than a mere literary or linguistic matter, but more a text that involves various dramatic elements reflected in languages, cultures and translation strategies. thus it is difficult to study this unique literary genre and to find preferred theories or strategies for drama translation. due to this, the thesis takes nida s functional equivalence theory as the reference theory to analyse chinese drama translation by means of a detailed case study of the two versions of chinese drama xixiang ji, that is, romance of the western bower by chinese scholar xu yuanchong and the story of the western wing by west and wilt. structurally, this thesis is composed of five chapters. chapter one is a general introduction of culture and translation. chapter two is focused on drama and drama translation. during this chapter, some basic information about drama, such as its various descriptions, classifications and ways of appreciating drama will be mentioned. besides, drama translation will be also introduced in details. chapter three is about nida s functional equivalence theory, which is the guiding theory of this thesis, from its theoretical aspects to its practical application. in chapter four, from a detailed literary review of xixiang ji, information about this chinese masterpiece will be illustrated before the study of its english versions. chapter five is case study, concentrating on the strategies applied in dealing with some cultural elements of xixiang ji in the two english versions, 4 romance of the western bower by chinese scholar xu yuanchong and the story of the western wing by west and wilt. during this part, some words or phrases concerning cultures will be analyzed: words concerning religion; altered literary quotations; quotations from book of poetry, analects etc.; quotations concerning myths or legends, idioms and proverbs, puns; and so on. in addition, the tune and style of the two translated versions will be discussed generally. moreover, the author also provides her own opinion on drama translation studies in the conclusion. 5 chapter i culture and translation since culture plays an essential part in practical translation, it is very necessary to have a brief look at the concept and some characteristics of culture before discussing drama translation which involves much concern on cultural elements. 1.1 culture 1.1.1 definition of culture culture has been defined in a number of ways. different scholars provide different definitions for culture. originally, culture (from the latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning to cultivate)1 generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. according to findley, carther vaughn and john alexander rothney, cultures can also be understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another2 . while in the science of man in the world culture, kluckhohn, c., while domestication is dealienation of the foreign language by translating it into a language which the author would have used if he/she had lived in the time and place of the target language. similarly, rose (1981) distinguished between audience- adapted and textually autonomous translations and lefevere (1977) between reader- oriented and text- oriented translation. reiss (1976) clarifies translation as being informative, expressive or operative, depending on whether they are instructing, affecting or persuading the readers. house (1977) differentiates between overt and covert translations, i.e. those which can be easily identified as translation and those texts which exist in their own right no matter in which language. other clarifications are literal or free, scientific or artistic translations, the former of which are housed in pure linguistics and based on theory while the latter are housed in applied linguistics and mainly founded on practice guided by personal theory. 1.3 culture and translation culture and translation are closely related to each other. as we have mentioned, the major function of translation is to provide for one s own country something new or different of foreign countries, or introduce something domestic into other nations. during literary translation, many cultural elements are involved. a good command of cultural study becomes an important factor that determines a successful translation. more and more contemporary translators agree that the ultimate goal of translation is the successful communication across cultures. taking cultural elements as one of the most important factors that affects translation, researchers of translation studies have been engaged in more specific fields and sought new approaches to translation studies. present translators innovative thinking liberates translation studies from its former enclosed domain and leads translation studies to a more profound and extensive realm. closely 11 related to cultures, translation studies have turned into an independent discipline. 12 chapter ii drama and drama translation 2.1 definition and classification of drama drama is quite a complicated and problematic literary genre due to its peculiar characteristics which are different from other forms of art. thus it is necessary to get a general knowledge of its definition and its categories before focusing on its translation. as soon as drama is mentioned, two other terms should be mentioned: theatre and play. the basic notions of these three terms are clarified as follows: according to the oxford companion to the theatre (phyllis, 1983:15), drama is a term applied to the whole body of works written for the theatre, such as english drama, french drama, or to a group of plays related by their style, content or period, such as restoration drama, realistic drama. play is a generic term applied to any work written to be acted, such as comedy, tragedy, or farce. and it should be entirely or mainly spoken. this nature of play differentiates it from mime, ballet, and opera, which has no dialogue at all, or is entirely sung. in most cases, the word theatre refers to a building with a stage where dramatic literature is performed by actors. when used in some academic writings of literature and art, it means dramatic literature itself or dramatic representation is a form of art. the respective translated terms of drama, play, and theatre in chinese are 戏剧, 剧本, 戏剧演出. generally speaking, play refers to the written text that is to be performed, and theatre mentions the actual stage performance of plays. while the term drama is used in an inclusive way that emphasizes both its literary nature and its potential as stage performance. drama can be categorized according to different criterias. usually, it can be divided into tragedy, comedy, farce and historical plays according to its content. and it can be also sorted in terms of different periods or styles such as realistic drama, naturalistic drama and so on. in addition, based on its writing pattern, drama can also be divided into verse drama and non- verse- drama. during drama analysis, one point deserving our attention is that the audience should be taken into serious consideration. if the play is only intended to put on stage, we call it performance- oriented drama, during which the ultimate target receptors should be the audience in the theatre. however, some writers deliberately compile their 13 plays just for private reading and the intended receptors are individual readers. this type is labeled as closet drama. but it should be known that closet drama only accounts for a small proportion. and most dramas are for performance and the audience are the ultimate receptor of most plays. this thesis intends to discuss certain aspects in translation of performance- oriented drama. 2.2 how to appreciate drama drama, as a unique literary genre, has its own particular ways of appreciation. susan bassnett used to compare drama translation to a labyrinth in which the translator is caught and gets lost. this comparison vividly shows the complexity during the process of appreciating drama. to illustrate the complexity in this field, she states different methods of enjoying drama as follows: i. the play can be read as literature, unrelated to any possible or remembered performance. this way appears frequently in schools or universities where plays are taught. ii. the post- performance reading, which happens when the reflection of a performance seen is encoded into the private reading. iii. the director s reading, which may involve a process of decision making about whether the play will be performed or not. in this way, constrains and possibilities offered by the text would be emphasized in the director s comprehension of it. iv. the actor s reading, which would focus on the specific role. if we look at the performance scripts labeled by actors, then an individual s role is highlighted and other roles acted as secondary or instrumental. v. the designers reading, which would involve a visualization of spatial and physical dementuions that the text may open up. vi. to these reading methods listed above, we might add the dramaturgical reading, and readings by any other individual or group involved in the production process. vii. the rehearsal reading is subsequent to initial reading and will involve an aural performance element through the use of paralinguistic signs such as tone, inflexion, 14 pitch, register etc. these ways of enjoying dramas reflect not only the two functions of drama, i.e. read as literary work and enjoyed as play performed on the stage, but also indicates the possibilities and necessity of different translation strategies adopted by drama translators. 2.3 drama translation 2.3.1 process of drama translation as an important branch of literary translation, drama translation is quite different from other forms of literary translation (e.g. poetry, novels, short stories, etc.). drama translation can be viewed as transference from one language to another (involving idioms, slang, tone, style, irony, word play or puns); it can be regarded as transference from one culture to another (concerning customs, assumptions, and attitudes); it can be regarded as transference from one age/period to another (as above); it can be regarded as transference from one dramatic style to another; also it can be regarded as transference from one genre to another (such as tragedy to comedy or farce); it may also be a transference from verbal to non- verbal presentation; etc. drama translation is one filed to deserve special interest of researchers, yet still not. the domain of literary translation is one subdivision of translation science and drama translation is again a subsection of literary translation science. according to pavis, drama translation is composed of a series of concretizations: this process starts with a textual concretization (that is called the written translation); it is followed by a dramaturgical concretization; then it comes to the analysis, possibilities and constraints for its performance until it reaches the stage of concretization; and the fourth concretization is that the final play is received by the audience in the target culture. 2.3.2 difficulties of drama translation with the property of stage performance, drama translation must be actable and speakable. thus it will not be translated like other literary translations which are mainly based on linguistic requirements. on the one hand, its performance nature determines that 15 non- verbal cultural aspects and staging features have to be taken into great consideration. on the other hand, being a literary text, the translation of drama as a performing art is mainly dependent on the final production of the play on the stage and on the effectiveness of the play on the audience. all these factors determine that drama translation must take into account both the textual aspects and the stage production besides, translating concerns reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of the source- language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly style. in other words, an accurate translation should be faithful and expressive, causing similar reader response between source language receptors and the target language receptors. in this case, the crucial task of translation is to make the translated text understood. that is to say, the translation should be expressive enough to be comprehended by readers without any, or at least not too much cultural obstacles. the translators should adopt more expressive words or expressions typically used in the target language. from the perspective of social linguistic and communicational function of language, nida points out that functional equivalence implies two equivalent relationships: the equivalence between source text and translated text, and that between the reader of source text and the reader of translated text. so the reader should be taken into serious consideration in translating and the most important standard of accuracy mainly 21 depends on the reader s response. this conception, when applied in drama translation, implies that the “ audience” of a translated “ play text” should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original “ audience” of the “ play text” have understood and appreciated it. (nida, 2004:87.) we take functional equivalence theory as