A Report On The Translation Of The View From Castle Rock

This thesis is a translation project report on The View from Castle Rock written by Alice Munro, who is one of prominent novelists in contemporary Canadian literature. Munro usually adopts unique writing strategy of Chekhovian realism in most of her works, and her keen insight and attentiveness on ordinary people’s life are reflected brilliantly and effectively in her works. The View from Castle Rock is one of Munro’s most distinctive works, which has won the James Black Memorial Prize in 2007.This translation report chooses Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory as the theoretical guidance. As an English translation theorist and practitioner, Peter Newmark’s theory is his major contribution to general translation theory. Communicative translation attempts to produce on its readers an effect as close as possible to that obtained on the readers of the original (Newmark,2001a:39) so that the text can have the same effect on the readers while retaining the original function. In the translation between English and Chinese, communicative translation theory provides effective ways for readers and translators to communicate comfortably.Guided by Peter Newmark’s communicative translation theory, this paper points out characteristics and difficulties in literary translation. Being supported by actual cases or examples from the text, the paper puts forward corresponding solutions respectively from obscure words, difficult and long sentences, and cultural differences; Meanwhile, translation skills of adding method, conversion, splitting and recasting are applied to The View from Castle Rock’s translation. This paper aims to explore the skills and strategies in the translation of English short novels, meanwhile, it can hopefully offer some references for domestic readers to learn about creative characteristics of Munro’s novels.