On Representation Of Foregrounded Features In Cao Wenxuan’s Works

With lyrical language,large images,and vivid characters,Chinese children’s literature has unique aesthetic value.Since the representative writer Cao Wenxuan was awarded Hans Christian Andersen Award for the Bronze and Sunflower,his works have been published in Western countries and gained extensive attention.Helen Wang,the principal translator of Cao’s works with rich practical experience,has rendered his six works,including Bronze and Sunflower.Her translation is widely accepted by foreign readers.Based on the foregrounding theory,the study,with an aim to shed light on research and practice of C-E translation of children’s literature,probes into Helen Wang’s translation of Cao’s works,analyses representation of the foregrounded features in his works and summarises translation methods and skills for representing the features.These questions are discussed in the study: What are the foregrounded features in Cao Wenxuan’s works? Have these foregrounded features being represented in translation? How they be represented? Which skills or methods are used by Helen Wang to reproduce the foregrounded features?To answer these questions,the study,adopting the methods of contrastive analysis and textual analysis,chooses Cao Wenxuan’s works translated by Helen Wang as the target works,including four short stories and two novels.The foregrounded features of Cao Wenxuan’s works are classified,the representation of the foregrounded features in the target works is analysed,and the methods and skills for representing the features used by Helen Wang are summarised.The study has found that deviation and parallelism are two kinds of foregrounded features in Cao’s works.The former includes phonological deviation,semantic deviation,and dialectal deviation.The latter consists of repetitive structure and parallel structure.According to statistics,Helen Wang uses different translation methods and skills to represent most foregrounded features of the target works.The literal translation method is primarily used to deal with the semantic deviation and parallel structures,and the free translation method is majorly adopted to represent the phonological and dialectal deviation.For the phonological deviation,end rhyme substitution,conversion of parts of speech and shift of lines are practical skills.For the semantic deviation,combination and conversion can creatively represent the ST images.For the dialectal deviation,interpretation skill is viable to explain the dialectal words with cultural meanings.For the repetitive and parallel structures,the combination skill is adaptable to represent the formal feature.Besides,the reasons Helen Wang uses these methods and skills can be interpreted from the discrepancy between the source language and target language,the peculiar readership of children’s literature,and the story-as-awhole and emotion-oriented translation view of Helen Wang.