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How Huang Jianren Translates Psychological Descriptions in Gone with the Wind from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory

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DOI: 10.23977/aetp.2022.060816 | Downloads: 22 | Views: 806

Author(s)

Yueyan Chen 1, Sheng Yu 1

Affiliation(s)

1 School of the English Language&Culture, Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College

Corresponding Author

Sheng Yu

ABSTRACT

Translation is a cross-cultural activity of linguistic communication. It is difficult, however, for the original language to correspond completely with the target language, due to temporal and cultural backgrounds, the communicative context, and the translator’s personal ideology, aesthetics, and intended purposes. A translation is thus usually acceptable when it adapts to the target readers and the specific communicative context, and achieves the same effect as the original text. Taking the linguistic adaptation theory as the theoretical framework, we investigate how Huang Jianren applies, to her translation of Gone with the Wind, translation strategies, methods, and skills for characters’ psychological descriptions in Gone with the Wind. Specifically, we delve into the three perspectives of contextual adaptation, structural adaptation, and dynamic adaptation. Our research finds that adaptation theory has a certain guiding significance in literary translation. The most appropriate translation strategy enables the target-language readers to generate the same feeling as the source-language readers. In the aspect of psychological descriptions, Huang mainly employs domestication, under the guidance of which she opts for liberal translation and idiomatic translation frequently. In terms of techniques, Huang mainly adopts amplification, omission, division, and repositioning. This paper aims to provide some references for the translation studies of western classical literature translation and promote the cross-cultural communication between Chinese and western cultures.

KEYWORDS

Gone with the Wind, translation strategies, adaptation theory

CITE THIS PAPER

Yueyan Chen, Sheng Yu, How Huang Jianren Translates Psychological Descriptions in Gone with the Wind from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory. Advances in Educational Technology and Psychology (2022) Vol. 6: 88-99. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/aetp.2022.060816.

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