An Adaptation Theoretic Approach To Representation Of Narrative Perspectives In The Translation Of Yumi

Yumi is a prize-winning novel by Chinese contemporary novelist Bi Feiyu.It tells the life stories of three sisters struggling in a patriarchal society during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.Though the novel is mainly of a third-person omniscient point of view,the narrator sometimes assumes a storyteller’s tone,interrupting the narrative flow with a first-person stance and opening up a dialogue with either the readers or the characters;while other times he creatively lets the characters tell their own story directly in the first person.Undoubtedly,these two special narrative perspectives are one of the key factors for the novel’s overall success.In view of the importance of the narrative perspectives mentioned above,this thesis focuses on Goldblatt’s transference of them and the factors affecting his translation choices.Through a comparison between the original and its translation,this research finds that the translator has made adaptation in representing the narrative perspectives.Based on this finding,the thesis aims to figure out the specific factors influencing the translator’s choice-making in transforming these special narrative perspectives under Verschueren’s linguistic adaptation theory,and thus to make an objective comment on the translation strategies adopted.Through the research,this thesis has made two major findings:(1)Goldblatt preserves most of the forms of the original narrative perspectives,but he does not passively comply with them.Instead,he takes into account the contextual correlates and structural objects involved in the translation process,making dynamic adaptation by taking the original work as the center,and on the basis of reproducing the narrative style of the original work,conforming to the target readers’ reading inclinations and also to the coherence and the overall artistic effect of the target text.(2)When the original narrative perspectives have only subtle and obscure formal identifiers,Goldblatt shows comparatively low awareness towards them,and thus fails to deliver a satisfactory translation.However,since the original narrative perspectives are the manifestation of the characters’ self-speech or inner thought,which is necessarily hued with the characters’ personal discourse characteristics,emotions and feelings,and pace and rhythm,the original narrative perspectives can be spotted and translated through the characters’ language characteristics.Through an in-depth study on Goldblatt’s transference of Bi Feiyu’s narrative perspectives under the linguistic adaptation theory,this thesis reveals the translation choices made by the translator and also identifies the influencing factors behind,which can serve as a reference for further studies on fiction translation.