| Ulysses is one of the greatest literary works in the 20th century written by James Joyce and a masterpiece of "stream-of-consciousness". Ever since its publication in 1922, it has been seen as an unreadable work and has aroused both attention and controversy in the literary world. Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo spent over four years translating it into Chinese and finally brought this wonderful novel to the Chinese readers. Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo's Chinese version of Ulysses is divided into two volumes, which have 18 chapters altogether, totaling 1,259 pages, but what is the most remarkable is that there are as many as 5,988 pieces of annotations, taking up 335 pages--1/4 of the total.Annotation is always taken as an indispensable translation method, but most of the translators and critics do not favor annotations, which they think may disturb the reading. Xiao Qian also dislikes adding annotations in literary works, be it a literary creation or translation. But why did he add so many annotations in his Chinese version of Ulysses! The present thesis attempts to make a systematic study of those annotations. On the basis of a classification of the annotations Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo added in their translation of Ulysses, the thesis explains their purposes of annotating, analyzes the merits and demerits of their annotations, and finally suggests some basic principles that translators should follow in annotating literary translation.It is found that in addition to the common annotations on historical, cultural and linguistic elements, there is many an annotation added for interpretation of the text. The author attempts to categorize them into textual annotations, contextual annotations, inter-textual annotations and extra-textual annotations. A careful analysis of these annotations makes us more aware of the importance of annotations in reading Ulysses and more appreciative of James Joyce's originality and delicacy in his literary creation.Annotating literary translation is in fact an art. Proper annotations can help readers better understand and appreciate literary translation works. Accordingly, when and how to annotate literary translation seem to be an important subject which should be researched in translation studies. On the one hand, how to annotate a translated text should not be in bondage to several rigid rules, but on the other hand, annotations should not be given in the translated works in a too random way. Instead, the translator should follow some principles for annotating. After the comprehensive study of annotations in Ulysses, the author discovers that such variables as the nature of the ST, the author's intention, the translator's translation purposes, the TT and the assumed target reader would exert certain influence on annotating in literary translation. On the basis of what have been achieved by the previous scholars, the author proposes three principles for annotating in literary translation:(1) the translator should fully comprehend the source text and the author's intention; (2) he/she should assume a certain group of readers who are likely to use the target text and take their needs into account; and (3) he/she should try to make his/her annotations as essential, correct and objective as he can. |
