On Translation Norms Of Children’s Literary Works

With the increase of international cultural exchanges and the constant emphasis on youth education,foreign children’s literary works have attracted more and more attention.Taking Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a case,this thesis focuses on the translation norms of children’s literary works.On the basis of Toury and other predecessors,Chesterman divides translation norms into expectancy norms and professional norms(including the accountability norm,the communication norm and the relation norm).Harry Potter series have been welcomed by the majority of young readers and have been at the top of the bestseller list for many times,these works could be regarded as the representative work of children’s literature.Thus,this thesis discusses how translation norms are embodied in the Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,and selects 50 groups of typical Chinese and English examples to analyze what translation methods and techniques have been adopted to reveal these norms in the text by borrowing Xiong Bing’s classification of translation methods and techniques.Major findings of the study are as follows:Firstly,the expectancy norms are embodied in the Chinese version from four aspects.First,according to different translation needs,the translator Ma Aixin adopts the appropriate translation strategies of domestication and foreignization in a relatively balanced way.Secondly,some terms in the previous version of Harry Potter series have an influence on Ma.Thirdly,the original is in line with the mainstream ideology with positive world worldview and values of children so that the publishing house could introduce and publish the book.Finally,the expectation of young readers and the requirement of the original author and the publishing house are considered by Ma.Secondly,the professional norms are embodied in the Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is analyzed.The translator Ma’s competence and qualification,and the sense of responsibility are important to realize the accountability norm.As for the communication norm,Ma is familiar with the language suitable for children’s literary works,and her cross-cultural consciousness helps her to eliminate cultural bumps in translating.In addition,linguistic competence of Ma is essential for the relation norm.She mainly seeks for stylistic similarity,formed similarity,semantic closeness and similarity of effect and tries to achieve the “optimal similarity” between the original text and the target text.Thirdly,the translation methods adopted by the translator in the Chinese version mainly include: transliteration,literal translation,liberal translation and imitation.The former two methods belong to foreignization,mainly revealing the accountability norm and the communication norm.The latter two are under domestication,mainly revealing the communication norm.Moreover,the translation techniques as omission,amplification,annotation,division,combination and shift are involved in the translation,mainly embodying the relation norm and the communication norm.It should be noted that the relationship among the translation methods,techniques and the translation norms is not absolute,a single method or technique could sometimes reveal more than one translation norms,and a single translation norm could also be revealed by multiple methods or techniques.The translator often chooses to use various proper methods and techniques together to embellish the translation from different aspects,in order to present a better version.In addition,as professional norms are subordinate to expectancy norms,when the translation methods and techniques adopted by Ma Aixin embody the professional norms,it means that she has also reached the expectancy norms.To a certain extent,this research is an enrichment for the study of the Chinese translation of foreign children’s literary works,which might provide some implication to help the version of children’s literary works achieve a better translation effect and a wider readership.