A Report On The Translation Of How To Be An Antiracist(Chapter One And Chapter Two)

This report is based on the translation of the first two chapters of How to Be an Antiracist written by an African American writer Ibram X.Kendi.By citing classic cases in American history,this book discusses the content of racism and Kendi’s proposals for antiracist individuals to act and change.The first two chapters of this book explain essential terms related to racism and picture African Americans’ plight to readers and can further make them reflect on their own words and actions.The source text can be classified as the vocative text because this kind of text tries to impress upon its readership to act,think,feel,and react in the way intended by the text.This concept corresponds to the idea of the Interpretive Theory of Translation(ITT)put forward by Danica Seleskovitch.ITT emphasizes the communicative function of a text,the translator’s subjective initiative,and readers’ response.Therefore,ITT is used as the guiding theory in translating the first two chapters.In translation,the translator has found 129 parallel structures(around 3,200 words)in these two chapters,accounting for approximately 47% of the total,among which the translation of parallel structures at the phrase and sentence levels is at the core of most translating difficulties.In view of this,the translator renders parallel structures based on the triangle model of interpreting in ITT--understanding of sense,deverbalizing,and reformulating of that sense,in a bid to free herself from the external language form,reexpress the original intention correctly,and finally impress upon readers with the same effect of the source text.The translator adopts free translation,conversion,and addition to deal with parallel structures at the phrase level.With regard to parallel structures at the sentence level,the translator employs translation methods of division,reorganization,and omission.Hopefully,this report can shed some light on the translation practice of related vocative essays.