论文总字数：59427字

摘 要

在中国，儿童文学翻译没有得到应有的重视。儿童文学翻译一直处于学术研究的边缘地带。实际上，儿童文学的翻译是十分不简单的。译者不仅仅需要精通两种语言，而且十分熟悉儿童文学所具有的特点和儿童所特有的语言体系，并且应该站在儿童的角度上去理解翻译儿童文学作品。从功能对等理论上看，译者不应该仅仅只着重于源语言和目的语之间，相反他们应该努力去让目的语读者产生于源语言读者所相同的情感以至于他们可以感同身受。

儿童文学的主体是作品的译者。译者在翻译的过程中起着至关重要的角色。本文指出译者在翻译过程所扮演的两大主要角色。首先，译者需要去理解和解释源语文学作品并且担任读者的角色。然后，译者需要从新构建目的语作品并且担任作者的角色。本文认为功能对等理论对译者的角色扮演具有指导性和适用性。

通过对夏洛的网中译者角色分析，本文认为奈达的功能对等理论在指导儿童文学翻译中具有适用性和实用性在具体的理论和实践中。功能对等理论要求一个好的儿童文学翻译应该首先充分理解孩子的心理发展状态，充分地理解原文的含义和意义，不滥用成人化的语言。一个好的翻译不仅仅是一个优秀的读者、一个好的作家更是一个完美的创造者。

关键词：译者角色；功能对等；夏洛的网

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

1. Introduction 2

1.1 Research background 2

1.2 Research questions 3

1.3 Research methods 3

2. Literature review 3

2.1. Studies on the translators’ Role 3

2.2 A survey of previous studies on functional equivalence theory 5

2.3Previous studies on Charlotte’s Web 6

3. The role of the translator in Charlotte’s Web from the perspective of functional equivalence 7

3.1The translator as a special reader 7

3.2The translator as a special author 10

4. Translational strategies and factors influencing the translator’s role in Charlotte’s Web 11

4.1The translator’s translational strategies 12

4.2The factors influencing the translator’s role in Charlotte’s Web 14

4.2.1External factors 15

4.2.2 Internal factors 16

5.Conclusions 18

References 18

1. Introduction

Translation plays a vital role in the transmission of culture and information. Translation promotes the survival and circulation of literary works and their culture. Translation allows all literature and culture to spread throughout the world. Translation allows us to broaden our horizons and make the whole world a paradise for people to share. However, the translators which is the subject of the translation make all these possible. Translators transfer the source language into the target language with their own language and cultural knowledge, to transmit information and culture. At the same time, the translator plays different roles. These roles put the translator in a very important but difficult position. Over the years, the translator was given different names, such as "servant", "bridge", "coordinator", "pianist", "artist", "traitor," "invisible man", "photographer "，" matchmaker "," mouthpiece "and other names.

1.1 Research background

Since ancient times, the translator was the subject of translation activities, especially the literary translation. In the traditional translation theory, the status of the translator was not given due attention, even suffered denial. Traditional Chinese and western translation theories regarded translator as a tool of language conversion. Theorists gave translator beautiful or dismissive titles: "translators, people’s tongues", "translator, traitor", "the translator was a professional matchmaker", "the translator was a ferryman of words" "the translator was a transparent glass", "the translator was a brilliant photographer". (Zhang Boran, Xu Jun, 2002: 406) People thought that the ideal translator should be based on entire representation of the original works and the original author's intent for the purpose, thus the ideal status of translator were invisible. The translator should be like a mirror, which can demonstrate the original works clearly and unmistakably to the target readers.

With the rise of deconstruction, the ideas of original work-centered theory had been challenged and the authoritative position of original author had been subverted. Roland Barthes even put forward the "death of the author", saying that once a work was translated, the language symbols in the text would begin to work. The readers could interpret, explain, explore and clarify the meaning of the text through the language symbols of the text. The author no longer had right to speak at this point. Even if the author would make some explanations on their own works, the reader would not consider on the grounds of text. (Xie Tianzhen, 2002) At the same time, the dominant position of the translator in translation behavior began to attract people’s attention. The translators, as the subject of translation, were gradually recognized by translation researchers in terms of identity and status. However, the study of translator did not draw enough attention and the study of the translator in literary translation was much less. Some were just as the implication of the theory and some was too prescriptive which was emphasizing only the requirements of the translator.

1.2 Research questions

The author found that the study of translator’s roles did not catch much attention and children's literature has been marginalized by querying some information. Thus it was of great meaning to study the roles of the translator in children's literature translation. Ren Rongrong, as a famous contemporary children's literature translator, had formed his own unique style of translation and translation principles through translation practice for decades. Through the study of his rich translation practices, his translation principles and strategies could be found. Therefore, from the perspective of the functional equivalence theory, this paper carried out study on translator’s roles with Ren Rongrong’s translation - Charlotte’s Web. The followings were some of the research questions that this paper needed to address:

1. From the perspective of functional equivalence, what roles does the translator play? What is the meaning of these roles to the completion of target language?

2. How can the translator use his translation strategies to achieve the functional equivalence in Charlotte’s Web?

3. What are the external and internal factors affecting the roles of the translator?

1.3 Research methods

This paper was under the perspective of Nida's functional equivalence to research the translator’s role in children's literature translation in Charlotte’s Web.

Firstly，The author read about many references on this subject at home and abroad before she wrote this paper. She gave some notes on the works which can be found in libraries and on the Internet. Secondly, she made a research on them by using quantitative analysis method to analyze the results and the direction of the translator’s role. The author found some references about the role of the translator. She combined the characteristics of children's literature and the theory of functional equivalence to analyze and do research on these references. Furthermore, the author collected many previous translating theories, induced them and getting some problem from them.

In the end, the author’s supervisor gave too much help to her. With her hard work and her tutor’s kind help, she was confident to finish this job.

2. Literature review

2.1. Studies on the translators’ Role

The author collected some references about the translator's role, summed up their common points and generalized the conclusion from the different.

In The process of the translator's role research in translation, Gong Lin(2003) clarified translation as a human activity whether in China or in the west had developed for about 2000 years. People had studied on translation since translation emerged. Translators and translation theorists had made a lot of theoretical researches on translation, which including the study of the translator. Any kind of translation was connected with the translator who played a decisive role in translation process and re-thinking and re-expression which authentic author knew from the translator, which the translator played a very unique role in the process obviously. Gong Lin gave the four main roles which the translator played in translation process: the translator read original work as a reader, the translator reproduced original work as a author, the translator conveyed original work as a creator and the translator recognized original work as a researcher.

In The role of the translator and translation style, Mei Zhongbo(2006) proved the purpose of translation was to make the translation faithfully reflect the original content and style. When the translator tried to pursue this goal, translators' role decided any translation will leave traces of translators' re-creation which the translator's translation revealed translators' personal style was inevitable. This was decided by the role of the translator in translation. Mei Zhongbo clarified the translator's style should not be simply denying or disappear. He pointed out we should face up to translator's style's existence and try to achieve translator's style and author's style's dialectical unification.

In Talk About the Translator's Role, Zhao Hongwei(2006) proved in the moment of the rapid development of Intercultural Communication , the translation played an important role as Intermediary element. Did we think that what was the status of the translator in Cultural Network? What's the pressure he under from huge translation tasks and how the Implement Subjectivity could be achieve in the translation process at the moment that we full enjoyed the fun which culture and literature network brought? Zhao Hongwei defined the role of the translator which living in the culture literature and discussed the role of the translators from another dimension.

In The evolution of the translators' role and cultural turn, Qu Qingyong(2009) introduced the role of translator was defined as "servants" in the traditional concept of translation. After the 1970s, Western translation studies began to appear important turning point - the "cultural turn", the cultural turn in translation studies involved the translation subject inevitably. Our translator had more systematic study of consciousness was from the beginning of the eighties. This paper reviewed the evolution of the role of the translator, raised the need to translate their valuable experience and skills to organize research, paid more attention to copyright and all kinds of other interests, which in order to facilitate the construction of Chinese Translation Studies.

Sun Jianguang(2009), in his The role of the translator in literary biography, introduced the translator presented the original history and literary art in the process of the biography literature translation and they would create the original text due to his own literary and artistic accomplishment, aesthetic value and specific environment. So, the translator in the biography translation must fully consider their own role and pay attention to the reality, artistry and creative of the translation.

Ao Xuan(2012),in his On Translator's Role In The Light Of Narratology—A Case Study Of Roberts' and Taylor's English Translations Of San Guo Yan Yi, proved the translator should not only deal with the language differences between source language and target language carefully, but also should grasp the narrative characteristics of the original language and the real intention of the narrator accurately since the novel was a strong narrative form which had some differences in narrative types, narrative elements and style.

In On the Switching Roles of Translator in Translating Western Fantasy Literature --- A Case Study of the Translation of A Game of Thrones, Zhang Meiwen(2014) analyzed the translation practice was becoming more and more pay attention to the embodiment of the cultural and political significance with the "cultural turn" in the field of translation studies. Today, translation theorists and practitioners hadn’t found the universal strategy which was applicable to all translation text. Therefore, the translator adopted the strategy which would change accordingly in the process of dealing with different text.

2.2 A survey of previous studies on functional equivalence theory

In 1980s, functional equivalence theory was spread to China. It attracted many Chinese translation scholars' attention. Some translation scholars had studied on functional equivalence which could give the literary translation some helpful guidance.

Yang Sigui(2007)in his Shallow analyses of Nida's functional equivalence theory ,introduced that the essence of functional equivalence was the target text readers' feeling should basically to the original readers' understanding and functional equivalence should achieve equivalence in semantic、style and the response of reader. She considered Nida's functional equivalence theory had its positive side and limitations.

Lv Meng (2007) in his The re-recognition of Nida's functional equivalence theory, proved the people who advocated against the theory of "functional equivalence" resulted from the absolute understanding of "equivalence", which was the misunderstanding of Nida. Lv Meng analyzed the true content of Nida's "functional equivalence" and the principle of functional in order to hope people understand and use the theory in the translation practice correctly.

In Nida's functional equivalence theory and its evaluation，Wang Xiaodan(2009) proved the fundamental point of "functional equivalence" was the comparison between original language's reader to understand and appreciate the way and the translation's reader understand and appreciate the way requested the translation of the language readers in understanding the translation should achieve the original language readers' understanding (minimum functional equivalence), the translation language's reader should basically to the way of original readers understand and appreciate to understand and appreciate the translation text.(maximum functional equivalence). She pointed out the defects in the "functional equivalence" was culture domestication and culture-loaded words lacking. In literary translation was difficult to achieve functional equivalence.

Du Ping (2004) in his Dialectical view of Nida's functional equivalence theory, introduced the "Functional equivalence" was the core of Nida's translation theory system, it has profound theoretical basis, also had a lot of practice. He pointed out the process of functional equivalence theory and dialectically analyzed "Functional equivalence" theory's advantages and drawbacks.

Zhao Dandan (2011) in her Analyze of Nida's functional equivalence theory, illustrated the translator in the translation process should set up the correct view and use the Nida's functional equivalence theory suitably.

All the above, the researches on the theory of Functional Equivalence is pure theoretical knowledge. There are few studies on the translator's role under the guidance of Functional Equivalence in American children's literature. This paper will analyze the translator's role with the help of Functional Equivalence theory in Charlotte’s Web to testify that Functional Equivalence is very useful to direct American children's literature translation.

2.3Previous studies on Charlotte's web

Huang Ting (2010) in her Talk Charlotte’s Web's narrative strategy, introduced Charlotte’s Web selected the inherently flawed "characters" Wilbur as its core in order to inspire the reader's childishness and improve the reader's reading interest. E.B. white not only touched the hearts of readers, but also reflected the human nature of ignorance with the help of a "hint" and "irony" narration’s means and description of pure friendship which enriched the connotation of the text. In addition, since the E.B. White’s self-conscious language style, which can make the readers achieve the easily pleasant aesthetic feelings in the reading.

Liu Jing(2012) in her The praise of life - the Analyze of Charlotte’s Web's Theme, introduced Charlotte’s Web was a classic children's literature which contained rich life philosophy, the theme of love and friendship. The author of Charlotte’s Web used white concise and plain language to praise the beauty of life and sing a song of life.

Liu Qiong (2014) in her Charlotte’s Web: Philosophical thinking about life value, illustrated this book told us the strength and toughness of spirit and the great and noble of human nature with the warmth and kindness. In this beautiful fairy tale, the author collected carefully for us with a meaning of life and growth of praise which is a glance on the human's poetic life and let us point out the person's survival value of torture. Charlotte's goodness and virtue was the spirit of salvation and the embodiment of the national big love. The author used the beautiful role Charlotte to show a moral influence of warmth and humanitarian care, which was the moral salvation of human social reality and a moral imagination of ideal society.

In Talk Charlotte’s Web as the characteristics of children's fiction, Jiang Shuhan(2014)proved E.B White described the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur in the farm in his works successfully. The novel was full of strong tender feeling and passing the correct value to the children readers. This thesis consisted of six parts. The introduction briefly introduced the author's life and his major works, the main content of the novel and the research status at home and abroad. The first chapter introduced the four major aspects of characteristics of children's fiction of and its application, namely: educational, legibility, entertaining and informative. The second chapter analyzed the educational about Charlotte’s Web's theme. This chapter mainly discussed how the author explained the aspects such as friendship, ecology, life show educational children's fiction. The third chapter analyzed the Charlotte’s Web legibility from the linguistic, which mainly discussed how the author showed characteristics of children's fiction in the legibility on the use of simple sentence, colloquial style, the vocabulary selection. The fourth chapter analyzed the Charlotte’s Web's entertainment from the unique writing technique. This chapter mainly discussed how the author showed the characteristics of children's fiction in the entertainment through the personification gimmick, interesting plot design and illustration application of these three aspects.

3. The role of the translator in Charlotte's Web from the perspective of functional equivalence

Justa Holz thought the translator was supposed to be the perfect expert in cross-cultural communication. From the above, the foregoing literature review is to discuss the role of the translator in detail. However, the following idea of this problem is that the translator can make what kind of contribution, especially the role which translator plays in translation process. In 1980s, Catherine Nice said the translator in the different translation process must play the role of leader, master and consultants. (Chen Dawei,2001)

The author realizes that the translator usually plays three main roles: the role of a reader, the role of an author and the role of the creator from the references which analyzing the translator's role in literary works. The author considers that the function of the role of a reader includes the function of the role of the creator, so this paper gives the introduction to the two main roles: the role of the reader and the role of the author.

Through the literature review which made from the collected references, the author found the translator played a variety of roles in the translation process which had the positive significance for the final text. The translator could play the role of a reader, an author, a creator and a visible man. The author assumes the two most important roles of the translator in translation process: the translator plays the role of a reader and the role of an author obviously. She analyzes the two main roles’ importance and significance that may have the positive effect on translating the world classics book - - Charlotte’s Web from the perspective of Nida's Functional Equivalence. The author studies how the functional equivalence theory influences the translator’s role in translation process. Furthermore, she gives the statement that the thing may happen if the translator doesn’t play the two main roles in order to prove the necessity of the translator plays the two main roles.

3.1The translator as a special reader

The translator is the main body in the translation process. Translation will not be going on without the translator's re-recognition and re-express. The translator has multiple roles in the process of translation. (Mei Zhongbo,2006) In translation process, a translator should firstly fully understand the original text. In other words, a translator is firstly a reader. He needs to convey the information which he gets from the original text and produces the targeted language after the analysis of the original text. However, when the translator plays the role of a reader, he is completely different from ordinary readers: for ordinary readers, they only need to understand the original text to some extent and get the happiness of reading from it, but the translator’s reading is far more than that, his reading process must abide by the visible and invisible principles specified to him. (Zhao Hongwei, 2006)

The richness, ductility and enthusiasm are the essential qualities of excellent children's literary works. Even Charlotte’s Web is simple in the plot of the story, the author also use simple words to describe the characters by distinct and refined language. This shows E.B White is a very excellent author. Children's literature is aimed at the group of children, so language should be delicate and profound in works, which can attract young readers' deeply emotion since the ability of teenager's emotions and feelings are prominent. In Charlotte’s Web, the hidden deeply friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur let readers feel shocked and cause a strong resonance. If a reader just as a common reader not a translator, he feels only shocked and just enjoys the Joy of reading. However, when the translator read this plot, he must understand the deep meaning in the plot and analyze the cause of the author's attention. It is a very complex process for a translator to play the role of a reader since his aim is to complete the target text from the perspective of Nida's Functional Equivalence.

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