| Drama is a comprehensive art which is stage-oriented and performed by the actors. Assisted by literature, dance, music, art and other artistic forms, the drama shapes the images of characters, reveals the social conflicts and reflects the real life. Drama translation is the translation of the drama text from one language and culture into another. The special stylistic characteristics of drama determine that drama translation is a great challenge in the translation field. Over the years, drama translation has attracted widespread attention from many researchers, who expect to have a key breakthrough in translation field. However, at present, most of drama translation practices are based on the original translation criteria and strategies, with no major progress.The uniqueness of drama lies in that it mainly consists of dialogues of characters, so actually drama translation is translating characters’dialogues. The effective drama translation enables it to reproduce the texture of the source text and makes the target audience feel the artistic charm of the source text through characters’dialogues. Speech Act Theory is an important theory in pragmatics, and it influenced a lot on translation activities. Particularly, the illocutionary act in the trichotomy of Speech Act Theory has shed light on drama translation. The core of the theory is "illocutionary force", which means the intention of the speaker. The application of "illocutionary force" in drama translation provides a better translation method for translators. In the process of drama translation, the translator should analyze the intention of characters in the play through the literary meanings of their speech. Thoroughly understanding the purpose of the speaker, the translator can know well the real meaning of the speaker and the effect produced by the utterance. In this way, the translated text can make a more precise and thorough expression of the intention hidden behind dialogues, thus it can better transmit the essence of the source text. The author of this thesis, by analyzing Wang Zuoliang’s version of Thunderstorm in detail, applies Speech Act Theory to drama translation and puts forward five principles, namely, colloquialism, personalization, implicitness, conciseness and musicality. The translator, in the course of drama translation, should thoroughly comprehend the intention of characters and put the emphasis on the "illocutionary force", and then express the desired effect by employing natural languages. Speech Act Theory gives a significant implication to drama translators, and it makes drama translation more suitable for stage performance. |
