A Reflection On Translating The Intertextual Components Of Heterogeneous Genre In Chinese Tea Culturology

This practice report gives a reflection,summarization and distillation to the translationprocess of the textbook Chinese Tea Culturology.As a course teaching material,Chinese Tea Culturology is an informative textbook as a whole.However,there are other heterogeneous genres,such as poetry,prose and allusion etc.,embedded in this book.The embedding of these literary styles forms a phenomenon referred to as “generic intertextuality” in linguistics,which also presents challenges to its translation process.Translation Variation Theory,proposed by Professor Huang Zhonglian,advocates that translators should adopt variation methods as proper techniques to make the translated version appropriate and acceptable to the target readers.This theory has proved to be constructive in guiding translation practice.Therefore,with the translation of Chapter Three of this book as a case,the theory of intertextuality as guidance and translation variation theory as the methodology,the report tries to analyze how to render the embedded components naturally and coherently while still sticking to the central informative expository function of this textbook as a harmonious whole.Five chapters are included in this report.Chapter One introduces the background and significance of the research,the specific translation task,research questions and the layout of the report.Chapter Two gives a literature review on relevant studies on generic intertextuality and the application of translation variation theory.Chapter Three focuses on the theoretical framework of this report,discussing definitions of generic intertextuality and translation variation theory.Chapter Four is the main part of this report.Under the guidance of generic intertextuality,four types of heterogeneous genres embedded in Chinese Tea Culturology have been found out and discussed respectively.A detailed analysis is carried out to see how these varied genres have been dealt with to get a more satisfactory English version.Chapter Five retrospects of the research and draws a conclusion that variation techniques including supplement,deletion,combination and remoulding can be used to translate embedded heterogeneous genres in Chinese Tea Culturology.Hopefully,the English version with varied genres yet cohesive and coherent overall style can be better accepted by the target readers.