Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Background Information
Nowadays, cultural barriers in the world are gradually decreasing. Novels, as a medium of cultural transmission, can reflect the customs and ideologies of different cultures. Novels are the most direct and interesting way for people to understand a culture. Therefore, many novels are translated into foreign languages and spread to the outside world. In China, it can be seen on the Internet, in bookstores or libraries. Novels in all kinds of languages are translated into Chinese. From the perspective of literature development, modern Chinese literature has also been influenced by translated literature. Therefore, translating foreign excellent literary works will contribute to domestic literature. This is a way of absorbing foreign culture and promoting cultural exchanges between countries.
The Great Alone is a bestseller published by Saint Martin’s Press, one of the world's largest English book publishers. Kristin Hannah is one of New York Times bestselling writers who came out more than twenty novels. She has won many literature awards, such as National Reader's Choice Award, The Golden Heart, The Maggie. Her writing style emphasizes family bond and values, love and loss. Her masterpieces such as Nightingale and Firefly Lane, which are all set in the context of World War II, attract readers of different ages. The Great Alone, as soon as it came out in February 2018, instantly became the top of New York Times bestseller. The novel has caught the attention of mainstream medias, attracting numerous readers. The New York Times, Book List, Library Journal and other media think highly of it. For example, Kirkus reviews, “A tour de force. There are many great things about this book.”
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1.2 Objectives
This translation project covers a total amount of about 11000 words, which is selected from Chapter One to Chapter Three. The project belongs to the literature translation focusing on American culture. The target readers are Chinese readers and scholars who are interested in western literature. Under the premise of ensuring the faithfulness of the translation to the original text, the translator would enhance the readability of the novel. To meet the reading habits and needs of Chinese readers, the translator would translate the source text under the guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory. In order to give the target language readers similar feeling as the source language readers have, the translator would try best to retain the original writing style and convey the author’s intention. To the most extent, the translator would portray the fictional characters as the original way. Through the whole translation project, the translator aims to put the translation theory into practice.
From the perspective of readers, wars can break the strongest mind. After moving to a desolate area, the three-person family start a new life, but the following problems of survival is a great challenge for them. The family shows great unity along the way which is full of thorns and roses. The translation will exactly close to the original text to the greatest extent, thus making readers enjoy beautiful natural scenery. Readers will like simple and sincere inhabitants of Kenaq. Moreover, the exotic landscape will attract readers to go sightseeing along Homer Spit, a 7.2 km long piece of land in Homer, Alaska. It is obvious that modern American pioneers shows perseverance in course of time. This is a story about family love and loss, the struggle for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature. The story is full of philosophies of life. In Alaska, the survival is important, that is, knowing when to give up and just move on.
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Chapter II Description of Translation Process
2.1 Pre-translation Preparation
Pre-translation preparation is indispensable to translation practice. In order to better interpret the original text, the translator would know about the background of the age and the author’s experience and other works. Then, the translator would read some parallel texts, including 4 books on Functional Equivalence Theory and Stylistic Translation, 18 postgraduate dissertations mainly related to novel translation strategies and the application of "four-character" in translation.
Next, using proper translation tools can promote the translation progress. Thus, the translator should use the essential translation tools, such as Oxford English Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Lu Gusun English-Chinese Dictionary, Modern Chinese Dictionary, and some other relevant materials such as National Geographic, Alaska maps. To get the basic background knowledge, the translator will search online resources, such as Wikipedia and Kristin Hannah’s official website.
Finally, the translator would do the initial translation under the guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory and then make corrections under the teacher’s help so as to eliminate the cultural differences and give an equal feeling to the target readers as the source language readers have.
2.1.1 Introduction to the author and the source text
The author Kristin Hannah is the mother of one son and lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest. Her work mainly shows family relationship, and how love, death and birth run the full circle of life. Her writing style is famous for its delicate and profound description. Her works are fresh in style, blended with affective elements such as family and love, and are suitable for readers of different ages.
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2.2 Analysis of the Key and Difficult Points
The novel has three elements: character, plot and environment (natural environment and social environment). Character is the core of the novel. The plot is the skeleton of the novel, and the environment is the backing of the novel. A successful novel will clearly present the three elements to the readers, so a good translation work has to describe the characters, plots and environment as the original did. The Great Alone mainly relies on portrayal and discourse to describe typical literary images. Showing the changing environment depends on scenery descriptions. To sum up, the author uses characters’ utterances, characterization and scenery description to promote the development of the plot. These three things are the key points of this translation practice.
However, there are some difficulties during the translation process. Characterization is a key point in fiction translation. The portrayal of this novel is attractive and riveting, which is difficult to retain. In order to deal with the problem, the translator need to figure out the psychology of differnt characters. With the development of the plot, the characters have delicate emotional changes which are hard to grasp. Moreover, due to the differences between English and Chinese, it is difficult to represent the beautiful scenery description about Alaska. In addition, how to retain the beauty of the source language is worthy to be cosidered. In this way, retaining the original writing style is really a great challenge for the translator.
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Chapter III Theoretical Basis ............................ 9
3.1 A Brief Introduction to Eugene A. Nida’s Translation Theory ..................... 9
3.2 Fiction Translation ........................................ 9
3.3 Fiction Translation Under the Guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory ........... 10
Chapter IV Case Analysis .............................. 12
4.1 Functional Equivalence at Lexical Level ............................. 12
4.1.1 Word-class Shift .................................... 13
4.1.2 Free Translation ................................... 13
Chapter V Conclusion ............................ 20
Chapter IV Case Analysis
4.1 Functional Equivalence at Lexical Level
In literary works, many words and phrases have special contextual meaning, or even the writer's implied meaning. They undertake the important task of conveying the connotation of the works, expressing the author's thoughts and highlighting the artistic style. Therefore, the translator should give priority to the words’ meanings in the specific context of the source text and the messages conveyed by the writer. Then, the translator should express the original in a natural and appropriate language so as to help the target readers better understand the source text, as a result, achieving contextual consistency is prior to word consistency, namely functional equivalence at lexical level.
On the other hand, the parts of speech of English and Chinese (such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.) are roughly the same, but English and Chinese belong to two completely different language families—English belongs to Indo-European language family, while Chinese belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family. Because English and Chinese have great differences in vocabulary, word order, and grammatical structure, so word structure can’t be translated in parallel way that will make the translation rigid. Therefore, in the translation process, the translator should not only fully grasp the meaning of the original text, but also choose appropriate words and expressions to organize the target language, and properly use the conversion of part-of-speech to make the target language fluent, vivid and natural.
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Chapter V Conclusion
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