Translating Children’s Literature Based On The Style Translation Theory

The source text in this trans lation project is the children’s novel Doctor Rabbit and Ki-yi Coyote,one of the Green Wood Series written by the American children’s literature writer Thomas Clark Hinkle.Based on the style translation theory,the author of this thesis uses the translation of the novel to discuss style reproducing in children’s literature translation.The novel Doctor Rabbit and Ki-yi Coyote is characterized with distinctive children’s literature styles,as reflected at phonological,lexical,rhetorical levels,as well as in narrative methods and reader factors.Style reproducing is a big challenge in translating this work.Liu Miqing’s style translation theory holds that style can be recognized through formal markers and non-formal markers,and reproduced with three means including corresponding,recasting and deco lour ing,under the five basic principles including corresponding principle,reader-oriented principle,level principle,comprehensive principle,and the limitation of translatability,Based on the style translation theory in the translation of children’s literature,this paper discusses style reproducing in terms of the translation of formal markers,ie.,phonological,lexical and rhetorical markers,and the representation of non-formal markers,i.e.,narrative methods and reader factors.In terms of phonological markers,corresponding and recasting are adopted to reproduce the rhyming and repetition,and for the phonological markers that are difficult to reproduce,decolouring is adopted.In terms of lexical markers,corresponding,with the supplement of recasting,is the main strategy to reproduce the writer’s idiolect.In terms of rhetorical markers,corresponding supplemented by recasting is also adopted to retain the rhetorical devices such as parallelism,rhetorical question and exaggeration.In terms of narrative methods,corresponding is mainly adopted to reproduce the interactive style of storytelling.In terms of reader factors,recasting is mainly used to recreate the childlike expression of the original text.The translator needs to recognize and learn the style markers of the original text,and flexibly adopt the three strategies under the guidance of the five basic principles to reproduce the original styleThe case study shows that the style translation theory provides a clear and solid framework for the translator to recognize and master the style of the original work,and also provides the translator with the specific translation methods and translation principles to reproduce the original style.Therefore,the style translation theory has a strong guiding power in style reproducing in the translation of children’s literature.