A Comparative Study on Two Chinese Versions of The Great Gatsby

Abstract The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, is widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Jazz Age。 The Great Gatsby describes the so-called high society, which is the epitome of the American Jazz Age, at the same time it pointed out the theme: the disillusion of the American Dream 。 This theme is really meaningful and triggers a lot of thoughts。 85169

And now I pick two main Chinese versions of The Great Gatsby, Wu Ningkun’s version and Yao Naiqiang’s version to make a comparative study of their different translating styles, emphasis, characterization, descriptions of environment, symbolism and their own strengths and weaknesses ,which takes fidelity to original version and language fluency as main thread。 And in this thesis, the whole thesis is based on domestication and foreignization。 We will discuss the translating style of these two translators。 And finally draw a conclusion about their different emphasis of the whole translation。 

Key words: free translation and literal translation; domestication; foreignization fluency; fidelity to original version; characterization; symbolism; overall situation

两种译本间的《了不起的盖茨比》对比研究

摘要 《了不起的盖茨比》是美国作家菲茨杰拉德广为流传的代表作，其在文学史上亦具有举足轻重的地位。《了不起的盖茨比》描述了爵士时代所谓的高层社会灯红酒绿纸醉金迷的生活，同时也突出了主题——美国梦的破灭。

不同译本的《了不起的盖茨比》褒贬不一。在此，笔者选择了巫宁坤译本的《了不起的盖茨比》与姚乃强的译本进行对比，从环境描写、总体特点、人物描写、象征意义等方面，以语言流畅性与对原文的忠实性为主线，以翻译理论中的归化与异化为基础理论进行论述。最后，通过论述得出结论并点出不同译本的侧重、特点以及其遵循的理论基础。

毕业论文关键词：直译与意译，归化与异化，流畅性，原著忠实度，人物描写，象征，大局观

Contents

Introduction 5

Chapter 1 Translation styles 6

1。1 Literal translation and liberal translation 6

1。2 Domestication and foreignization 8

Chapter 2 The comparison on environment descriptions 10

Chapter 3 The comparison on characterization 13

2。1 Characterization and character dialogue 13

2。2 Character actions and character appearance 15

Chapter 4 The comparison on the translation of symbols 19

4。1 Symbolism 19

4。2 The eyes of Doctor T。J。 Eckleburg 20

Chapter 5 Conclusion 23

References 24

Introduction

The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, is widely considered to be one of the most significant works of Jazz Age。 During the 1920s Fitzgerald enjoyed success, fame, and wealth, as a young lucky writer, but declined in spirit like his country when the stock market crashed in 1929。 What’s more ,he is called the spokesman of the Roaring Twenties。 源Q于W优H尔J论K文M网WwW.youeRw.com 原文+QQ75201.,8766

The Great Gatsby1 describes the so-called high society, which is the epitome of the American Jazz Age, at the same time it pointed out the theme: the disillusion of the American Dream 。 This theme is really meaningful and triggers a lot of thoughts。 And now I pick two main Chinese versions of The Great Gatsby, Wu Ningkun’s version and Yao Naiqiang’s version to make a comparative study of their different translating styles, emphasis and their own strengths and weaknesses ,which takes fidelity2 to original version and fluency of language as main thread。And in this thesis translating styles will also be discussed, which extend to domestication and foreignization。 And now let’s have a brief introduction of these two versions。