Translation Of Mystery Fiction In Light Of Translation Shifts Theory

As a genre of popular fiction,mystery fiction is always popular among readers as a bestseller due to its entertaining effect and the aesthetic experience of seeking the truth.The text for translation practice analyzed in this thesis is an excerpt of Remarkably Bright Creatures,a mystery novel that tells the story about love and redemption,featuring Marcellus the octopus and Tova,an old woman,in a vivid and beautiful way.By analyzing the characteristics of the original text,this paper aims to solve the difficulties in E-C translation in light of Translation Shifts Theory proposed by Catford,Al-Zoubi and Al-Hassnawi from the following four aspects: level shifts,category shifts,textual shifts and cultural shifts,so as to provide a high-quality translation of the excerpt,which might help further improve the quality of Chinese translations of such novels and provide inspiration for the translation of relevant texts in the future.The following conclusions are drawn based on the analysis of selected translation examples in light of Translation Shifts Theory.At the lexical level,the translation difficulties caused by grammatical differences between English and Chinese can be addressed by means of Level Shifts and Category Shifts.At the syntactic level,the Structural and Unit Shifts from Category Shifts can solve the difficulties encountered in the translation of sentences and discourses.At the textual level,cohesive and pragmatic shifts can achieve natural connections and transitions in context.At the cultural level,the translation of culture-loaded words and idioms can ensure the accurate conveyance of cultural factors in source language in the translation process and make it more accessible to target language readers.