A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of The Catcher In The Rye From The Perspective Of Translation Strategies

The Catcher In The Rye, after its publication by J.D.Salinger in 1951, because of its extraordinary writing technique and distinctive linguistic features, has been regarded as a classic and won great popularity among readers. The novel's special way of narration and distinctive linguistic features caused the difficulties in translating. So it is necessary to compare the two Chinese versions (Shi Xianrong's version and Sun Zhongxu's version) from a perspective of two basic translation strategies---domestication and foreignization. This comparative study would not only help to improve the quality of the translations, but also provide references for further studies on literary translation and translation strategies.Firstly, the dissertation discusses the necessity of comparing the two Chinese versions of The Catcher In The Rye and defines the basic content of translation strategies, i.e. domestication and foreignization. Based on the accurate data, the author reviews the discussions about translation strategies and the different discussions about comparative studies of Chinese translation versions of literary works from the perspective of domestication and foreignization, and points out the limitations of their discussions and the innovations of this dissertation. Then through the review of the disputes over domestication and foreignization, the author summarizes the merits and demerits of the two translation strategies. In view of their merits and demerits, which one should be more employed depends on the concrete translation problems.Secondly, the author analyzes Shi and Sun's versions from the perspective of domestication and foreignization at the linguistic level and cultural level respectively. At the linguistic level, the author mainly compares and analyzes the idiolect, diction and syntax. At the cultural level, the culture-loaded words and slang are analyzed.At last, the author summarizes the merits and demerits of the two Chinese versions, and points out that to translate the literary works like The Catcher In The Rye which possesses distinctive linguistic features and writing styles, translators should adopt foreignization as much as possible both at the linguistic level and at the cultural level to embody the style and the hero's character. This dissertation merely compares the two versions from the micro aspect and lacks the comparison from the macro aspect, which is the inadequacy of the study.