The Translation Of "Malcolm X:Sinner And Convert"—selected From Black Leadership In America:from Booker T·Washiington To Jesse Jackson

The project is a translation of "Malcolm X:Sinner and Convert", together with the critical commentary in which key points and the translation strategies are discussed. The original text is selected from Black Leadership in America: From Booker T. Washington to Jesse Jackson which was written by John White and published in1990. The book vividly introduces six great black leaders and their political thoughts."Malcolm X:Sinner and Convert" is the sixth one. The selection is divided into six different parts in which the background information, Malcolm X’s life experience, political thought and impacts are described in detail. To make sure that the English text has not been translated, the translator has done a lot of research through the Internet. It is proved that no one has translated this book into Chinese, which has guaranteed the originality of the translation.The underlying purpose of the translation is to retain information from the original text as much as possible, and meanwhile to guarantee the readability. To fulfill the intention, this translation follows the skopos theory. Skopos theory consists of skopos rule, fidelity rule and coherence rule. Skopos rule and fidelity rule guide the employment of translation strategies at lexical and syntactical levels, while coherence rule governs the whole translating process. Coherence rule is especially observed at the textual level so as to guarantee the consistency of the translation.Under the guidance of these three rules, the translator has applied different practical approaches to the completion of the project. At the lexical level, footnotes are used to explain certain concepts, semantic extension is employed to guarantee the readability, and necessary words are added to reveal the implied information. At the syntactic level, short sentences are translated by following the original syntactic order. Long sentences are rearranged according to the idiomatic Chinese pattern. At the textual level, the translated text is reread and reexamined. And then the incoherent concepts or sentences are modified to guarantee the consistency of the translation.The significance of this project can be viewed in three different aspects. Firstly, the translation practice will be of valuable significance to further translation of social science texts in the future. Secondly, the translated text will help Chinese readers know more about African American political leaders. Concerning Black Movements, Chinese people would firstly think about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X is less known by Chinese people. However, Malcolm X and his black nationalism are indispensable parts of the black civil right movement in addition to King and King’s non-violence in the middle20th century. The translation presents a comprehensive introduction of Malcolm X, his life, and his thoughts. Thirdly, this translation will be conducive to a more thorough, synoptic and unbiased understanding of Malcolm X. The translated text presents a different Malcolm X from the perspective of an American writer. It is hoped that this translation would cast some light on future researches on Malcolm and his black nationalism.