The Narrative Framing Of Diplomatic Interpreting

Mona Baker’s narrative theory of translation was established in 2006 in her book Translation and Conflict: a Narrative Account, in which the narrative theory was combined with the translation studies for the first time. Baker’s narrative theory recognizes the role of narrative in constituting reality rather than merely representing it. In the book, Baker draws on the notion of narrative as elaborated in social and communication theory and interpreting participate in these processes, and provides an original and coherent model of analysis that pays equal attention to micro and macro aspects of the circulation of narratives in translation, to translation and interpreting, and to questions of dominance and resistance. From the narrative perspective, Baker explores the way in which translation and interpreting participate in the conflicting international arena, reveals the close connections among narratives, the power structure and social identities in the process of constructing social reality, and further elaborates the role of translation and interpreting in the narrative framing of conflicts.Baker’s unique perspective, open academic vision, and her close interdisciplinary exploration break through the limitations of linguistic and literary approaches in translation and interpreting studies. The thesis attempts to adopt Baker’s theoretical framework, analytic model and research methodology to study the narrative framing strategies in China’s diplomatic interpreting to uncover the ideologies and political intentions encoded in the narratives as well as the active role of interpreters in mediating the conflicts of narratives.The present thesis mainly selected the utterance materials from the press conference of Chinese government as the research object. Narratives elaborated in such utterances like Premier Li Keqiang’s response to the correspondents home and abroad, have political import in a highly degree. Consequently, the interpreters involved often adopt active strategies to deliberately strengthen, undermine or modify the narrative content implicit in the original utterances.It is found out that there lie some similarities and differences between the framing strategies applied by interpreters and the framing strategies raised by Baker. Although Baker’s research focus is mainly laid on the conflicting narratives in Middle East, her four major framing strategies, including temporal and spatial framing, selective appropriation, labeling and repositioning of participants, is applicable to the narratives in political interpreting to a large extent. However, there are also some differences in the narrative framing adopted by interpreters. Based on Baker’s framing theory, the thesis tentatively expands to discuss the narrative framing strategies applied in diplomatic interpreting in the following aspects: the framing of physical and mental time and space; the omission and adding phenomenon in narrative framing; the labeling terms and euphemisms; the linguistic managements and means of self- and other identifications. In so doing, it is hoped that it can explore the ways in which interpretation constructs the social reality and give a clearer picture of the narratives in and of diplomatic interpreting. It is also hoped that the research may be of some help to the further in-depth studies of China’s diplomatic interpreting.