Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

This report on translation practice is an attempt to study the contextual and structural adaptation in literary translation based on adaptation theory put forward by Verschueren.The source text,Small Pleasures,edited by the modern British thinker Alan de Botton,consists of 52 self-contained essays,each one of which highlights the easily-neglected moment of enjoyment in our everyday life.By discussing these moments at length,this book aims to encourage readers to dig deeply into and appreciate their daily life.By analyzing the translation of this book,this study produces the following findings.First,although the topics in this book all originate from everyday life and are of universal value,the language features and the contexts of the original text still differ from those of the target language.Therefore,the analysis in this thesis consists of two main parts: contextual correlations of adaptability and structural objects of adaptability.The report discusses the former part by physical,mental,and social world,and the latter part by phonetic,lexical,and syntactic factors.Second,adaptation theory helps explain language selections.The process of translation is actually a process of using language.In this process,translators are constantly making selections of and adaptations to the language itself and other factors concerning language.Third,adaptation theory is of guiding value to translation practice.The process of generating meaning is similar to the process of translation under the guidance of adaptation.In both of the two processes,appropriate strategies to achieve adaptation are all chosen from these three perspectives,that is,interpretation of the source text,selection of the meaning and consideration of translation purposes.By comparing the differences between the final version and the first draft from the perspective of structural adaptation and contextual adaptation,this study attempts to identify what translation strategies can be adopted so as to achieve adaptation.In that case,Chinese readers can better understand the philosophy of small and hidden pleasures contained in the original text in the way that English readers do.The author of this thesis also hopes that this study may contribute to the research of practical translation methods used in literary translation between English and Chinese.