introduction

Introduced the definition, characteristics, and translation challenges of irony in literary creation. The ironic text contains both literal and implicit meanings, and its recognition and expression depend on the context, especially the socio-cultural context. The difficulties in translating irony include the recognition and expression of irony in the target language, and the translatability of different types of irony varies. Scholars have proposed various translation strategies, such as downplaying cultural factors and compensating for context. Irony translation needs to maintain the ambiguity and style of the original text, and the translator needs to switch between different roles, influenced by personal temperament. Taking the French English translation of "The True Story of Ah Q" as an example, this paper analyzes the ironic translation strategies of different translators, aiming to explore ironic translation as a starting point for the study of translator behavior, enrich the understanding of the translator's role, and provide reference for Chinese culture to go global.

1、 Theoretical framework

This paper introduces the theory of translator behavior criticism, emphasizing the central position and agency of translators in translation activities, distinguishing between scholar and author translators, and proposing a continuous evaluation model of translator behavior called "seeking truth and pragmatism". Meanwhile, the contextual analysis framework and translation compensation strategies for irony recognition were explored, including explicit and implicit compensation. Based on these theories, hypotheses have been proposed for ironic translation and contextual compensation, namely the relationship between the easy activation of context and the invisibility, neutrality, and compensation strategy selection of translator behavior. The research focuses on the differences in translator strategies in ironic translation of different contextual types, as well as the impact of external factors on the behavior of scholar and author translators.

2、 Methodology

Introduced the methodology of ironic translation research in "The True Story of Ah Q". The research subjects are the Chinese version and English and French translations of "The True Story of Ah Q". The French version was published by Paris Normal University Press in 2015, translated by Wei Jian, a French expert in Lu Xun studies. The English version was published by Penguin Press in 2009, translated by Lan Shiling, a renowned British sinologist. The research steps include aligning digital corpora, annotating ironic propositions, discussing with senior translators and Chinese language teachers as a foreign language, Excel analysis, etc. Translation strategies for translators can be divided into three types: truth-seeking, neutrality, and pragmatism. Compensation behaviors can be categorized into four types: deletion, zero compensation, explicit compensation, and implicit compensation. By providing examples for analysis, it demonstrates how to annotate and analyze ironic contexts.

3、 Research has found that

The study found that the chapter analyzed the classification and translator behavior of 111 ironic contexts based on data from Figure 1, Table 2, and Table 3. The ironic context can be divided into four categories: easiest, easier, harder, and hardest to activate. In the easiest and easier to activate contexts, Wei Jian tends to be neutral and seek truth, while Lan Shiling is more pragmatic and provides more implicit compensation than Wei Jian. In the context of difficult and most difficult activation, Wei Jian's neutral translation method decreases, and her tendency towards seeking truth and pragmatism increases, while Lan Shiling is more neutral and her pragmatic behavior decreases. Wei Jian increased the number of compensation items in the context of difficult activation, mainly using explicit compensation, while Lan Shiling tended to use implicit compensation. Wei Jian's translation is mainly neutral, biased towards seeking truth, occasionally pragmatic, while Lan Shiling is mainly pragmatic, also neutral, occasionally seeking truth. The neutral translations of the two translators account for a large proportion, and the zero compensation items are similar. Wei Jian's translation strategy and compensation strategy are basically consistent with the proposed hypothesis, while Lan Shiling's strategy and hypothesis are opposite.

4、 Discussion

Wei Jian and Lan Shiling, as scholar and author translators respectively, exhibit different translation strategies and motivations when translating Chinese modern and contemporary literary works. Scholar translator Wei Jian values both the original work and the author, and tends to translate directly to maintain the language style of the original text. The characteristic of his translation is detailed annotations, which help non academic readers understand the deeper meaning of the original work. His translation innovation is reflected in "abnormal translation", which preserves the language and cultural differences of the original text through literal translation, and highlights the poetic value of the original work's unfamiliarity. Author translator Lan Shiling, on the other hand, pays more attention to the language aesthetics and reader experience of the translated text, pursuing the shaping of personal style. Her translation is based on the associations evoked by the original text, often adding adjectives, adverbs, rhetoric and other embellishments in the translated version, using flexible techniques, aiming to make the world's classic works more widely accepted by readers. Both types of translators make translation strategy choices in the game of different subject and object forces, with the knowledge driven approach of scholar translators and the talent driven approach of author translators being the main driving forces behind their translation behavior.

conclusion

The generation of irony depends on common sense, text, and socio-cultural context, and can be classified into four levels of difficulty. Scholar translators are neutral in easily activated contexts and active in difficult activated contexts; Author translators, on the other hand, are the opposite. Scholar translators tend to prefer neutral and truthful translation with explicit compensation, while author translators tend to prefer pragmatic translation with implicit compensation. Scholar translators have better knowledge structure and hardworking spirit than author translators, who have better language literacy. The study of ironic translation breaks through the idea of only examining translator behavior through translation difficulties and is more systematic. Truth seeking and pragmatic translation complement each other, and the works of scholar and author translators form a continuum of intellectual and artistic development. In the context of telling good Chinese stories, different types of translators should be selected according to the purpose of dissemination.