A Study On Style Repkoductloni In Translating The Old Man And The Sea Into Chinese

How to reproduce the original style properly in the process of translation is asignificant subject for translation studies. Proper reproduction of the original style is animportant process required to enhance the quality of literary translations. This thesisfocuses on literary style reproduction in the process of fiction translation by incorporatinggeneral theoretical analysis of literary style with specific practical analysis ofHemingway’s literary style in The Old Man and the Sea as well as practical stylereproduction studies in five Chinese versions of the novella.A general analytic framework for literary styles from the perspective of translation isestablished by anatomizing literary styles into formality of language, individual creativecharacteristics as well as the theme and spirit, all of which are further decomposed intospecific and reproducible linguistic units. In terms of language formality, stylistic markersat lexical, syntactical and discourse levels as well as rhetorical devices are identifiedaccording to Liu Miqing’s theory of stylistic markers. Both subjective and objective factorsthat prop individual creative characteristics are put forward. And analysis of influencesimposed on literary styles by the theme and spirit is also conducted within the analyticframework for literary style analysis. The proposition of translatability of style is furtherexpounded with theoretical and practical analysis to prove its feasibility. Translators’literary styles and other factors that influence the reproduction of literary styles in theprocess of translation are also involved in the above-mentioned discussions to justify thestylistic analytic framework.The thesis then analyzes Hemingway’s literary style in The Old Man and the Sea withthe analytic framework as the theoretical basis. Distinctive features of Hemingway’slanguage are identified to represent the objective side of his literary style. The influencesimposed on Hemingway’s literary style by the unyielding spirit are analyzed as thesubjective side for proper style reproduction. Simplicity of language, tangibleness ofdescriptions, implicitness of emotions and uniqueness of conversations are identified asfour distinctive features of Hemingway’s language in the novella, while the old man’sappearances, words, thoughts and activities are investigated to fully comprehend theinfluences of the unyielding spirit on the literary style. Simplicity of language is mainlyanalyzed with stylistic markers at lexical and syntactical levels. Hemingway’s language blending human senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch, language phenomena withstrong visual impact and those that specify abstract things as well as all the rhetoricaldevices that are employed to vivify his descriptions are all included in the analysis ofHemingway’s tangibleness of descriptions. As to the implicit emotions and uniqueconversations, analysis at discourse level act well to tackle problems emerging at these twoaspects. Therefore, Hemingway’s literary style in The Old Man and the Sea are anatomizedinto specific and reproducible linguistic units in preparation for style reproduction studieswith Chinese versions of the novella.Practical style reproduction studies are conducted in the two aspects of Hemingway’slanguage features and the unyielding spirit with five Chinese versions of The Old Man andthe Sea. Four distinctive language features of Hemingway’s literary style are mediated withLiu Miqing’s theory of Form Markers. The studies at lexical level focus on the simplicityof Hemingway’s language; analysis at syntactical level involves simplicity of language andtangibleness of descriptions; discussions for the reproduction of implicitness of emotionsand uniqueness of conversations are conducted at the level of discourse and rhetoricaldevices are devoted to tangibleness of descriptions. Style reproduction of The Old Man andthe Sea in these Chinese versions are criticized and evaluated. Strategies and methodsadopted by the five translators are compared with the purpose to find effective ways inreproducing Hemingway’s literary style. Some strengths and weaknesses of each Chineseversion are revealed and suggestions are made for the reference of future translators andresearchers.