A Report On Translating Sinclair Lewis’s Moths In The Arc Light

Sinclair Lewis was the first American writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Through detailed depiction of American life and the sense of irony and humor, Lewis became one of the most powerful writers in American literature world. This translation report selects Moths in the Arc Light as the translation material.Featured by Sinclair Lewis’s typical writing style, this novel is full of irony and humor. The source text contains large amounts of detailed depictions including environmental descriptions which tactfully echo with the protagonist’s emotions. Besides, unfamiliar foreign cultures and social customs are largely involved, which brings difficulties to the target readers lack of relevant background knowledge. In addition, translation of dashes which frequently appear in the source text directly affects the target readers’reading experience.Under the guidance of Nida’s Reader’s Response Theory, a target readers group is established by some selected readers of different knowledge backgrounds. And the translated version is revised and improved for several times according to the target readers’response with the purpose of representing the meaning and writing style of the source text faithfully and offering the target readers an aesthetic value of literary works.The translation report consists of five parts. Chapter one is a brief introduction of Sinclair Lewis and his writing style. Chapter two focuses on the features of the source text. Chapter three contains translation preparations and process. Chapter four discusses cases study which covers analyses at three levels. At lexical level, the author explores the meaning of words in concrete context; at sentence level, the author concentrates on the features of the source text including irony and humor, environmental descriptions and dashes; at culture level, the author discusses the translation of allusions, cultural defaults and transformation of images. The last chapter, as a conclusion, summarizes major findings in the translation practice as well as some limitations and suggestions.