A Study of the Translation of Spells in the Harry Potter Series: the Perspective of Nidas Functional Equivalence Theory文献综述

 2022-08-11 15:24:05

Literature Review at Home and Abroad

1.1 Previous Studies at Home

In the 20 years since Harry Potter has been introduced to China, the series has been studied from multiple translation perspectives.

Studies have been done from the perspectives of relevance theory, Skopos theory, reception aesthetics theory, descriptive translation studies, domestication and foreignization, cross-cultural communication, cognitive pattern, etc. Subjects such as stylistic translation strategy, childrenrsquo;s literature translation, translation of the fantastic beastsrsquo; names, and translation of spells have been studied as research subjects.

Yang Kaixuan has considered Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a case study to probe into childrenrsquo;s literature translation from the perspective of relevance theory (2019). Yang has focused on the translation strategies of words, long sentences, and proper names of magical items. Reduplication and modal words make the tone closer to the targeted readers, children in this case, and increases the childlike interest in the language. Long sentences have been broken down into short ones to simplify the reading difficulty for children. As for the proper names of magical items, Yang observes that domestication and foreignization have been used as a translation strategy. All the translation methods are chosen in order to meet the cognitive ability of children so that children readers can make the least processing effort in reading.

From the perspective of Skopos theory, several studies have been done. Meng Qingsheng and Liu Chen use Skopos theory to analyze spells translation in the Harry Potter series (2012). According to this theory, their opinion can be divided into three parts. Four-character spells are more suitable for novel readers, transliteration plus free translation is more proper for the audience who have read the novels, and complete transliteration is more precisely, although it has sacrificed part of the meaning. In Yu Jianingrsquo;s thesis, she has used the mainland and Taiwan editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopherrsquo;s Stone to analyze comparatively that “whether they have pertained to a specific group of readers like children, and whether they make the translation works more attractive to children by the means such as the choice of simple words” (2012). Despite the differences in language habits of the mainland and Taiwan, the choice of words in the translation process should follow the concept of serving children readers. After analyzing the merits and demerits of the two translation versions from three aspects: imagery, conciseness, and musicality, the thesis concludes that Peoplersquo;s Literature Publishing Housersquo;s version has primarily concerned with the needs and characteristics of children readers.

Choosing childrenrsquo;s literature as the subject, Liu Yunxia has finished a case study following the reception aesthetics theory. She reckons that translators need to predict the reception situations of the translated version as well as positively accept and translate the source text.

Cai Xiaoqin and Pan Huali have discussed this topic from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. Rhetorical devices such as alliteration, palindrome, abbreviation, and pun are widely used in Harry Potters spells (2020). They divide the spell translation into three kinds: four-character spells, five-character spells, and other spells. Especially in the category of four-character spells, they consider five ways of domestication to make the spells formal and tidy. As to the five-character spells, domestication and foreignization are combined to translate the spells to make them have Chinese rhymes while being exotic.

1.2 Previous Studies Abroad

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