Performatives in Ying Ruocheng's Translation of Teahouse
The Translation Journal, (2008)Abstract
As the major part of drama, dramatic dialogue serves to push on the development of the story and guarantee performability of the drama on the stage, with stress on the gestic (undertext) features of the utterances. This paper explores the feasibility of performatives in dramatic dialogue translation, by comparing Ying Ruocheng's English version Teahouse with Howard's. We have found that Ying's version, considered more suitable for performance, better conforms to the rules of the theory of performatives, confirming his recommendation that orality, action and characters' personality are three major factors for the translator to bear in mind. It is well illustrated that performatives provide a proper theoretical framework for successful dramatic dialogue translation.