Phatic communion conversations are culturally-constrained speech acts happening every day and everywhere. Different cultural backgrounds between China and America will lead to the different applications of phatic communion. Considering American TV series as a mass media for cultural exchanges, subtitle plays a vital role in bridging two cultures. This paper introduces the related researches at home and abroad on phatic communion, summarizes the main methods adopted in translating different types of phatic communion by analyzing all the collected phatic communion conversations in Why Women Kill . The investigation of whether the subtitled phatic communion achieving the same illocutionary meaning that the original speakers trying to convey under the guide of politeness principles has been completed. The conclusion can be drawn as follows: the translator tends to apply different strategies in translating different types of phatic communion such as literal translation, paraphrase, cultural substitution, addition, condensation and specification methods to achieve the pragmatic equivalence between the original and the subtitle.
The Swimmer is one of John Cheever’s best known stories. It presents the classic theme of quest and journey. This paper focuses on the protagonist Neddy’s swimming journey, probes into his intense longing for masculinity, scrutinizes the nature and causes of his masculinity crisis relating to the postwar conceptions of class, gender and patriarchy norms combined with structural economic changes and the increasing autonomy of women, and reveals Cheever’s deep concern about white middle class male’s dilemma so as to offer some inspiration for resolving modern spiritual crisis.
Most gender inclined theories are aimed at awareness creation on experiences of women in order to promote their welfare. However, there is contention about the practicability of some of them because of their insensitivity to race and class. The controversy arises from the fact that none of them has the capability to completely tackle oppression against women, because, one which is applicable to a particular woman’s situation in a certain cultural background, might be totally unfeasible to another in a different cultural environment. This contention is what this study perceives as an intra-theoretical war, which focu-feminism emerges to end. Focu-feminism argues that women’s oppression varies from one circumstance to another and from one cultural background to another; each woman, therefore, requires to focus on herself and employ an approach she considers most suitable to overcoming oppression of any kind. The aim of this study is to investigate the global feasibility of focu-feminism with a view to ascertaining its applicability to the situation of the African woman. Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is used for this investigation.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is characterized by the narrative mechanisms and techniques it employs. Building on its structure, the novel is obviously rich in its underlying elements that are worth examining. One of these elements is the choice of multiple narrators and the complex organization of narrative time. This theoretical framework deals mainly with narration and narrative techniques as approached by structuralist narratology. As an approach that examines narration and its major hybrids, narratology delves into a structural study of Wuthering Heights allowing for a deep examination of the underlying narrative elements in the novel. Having said that, it is believed that the study of narratology is pertaining in the sense that it sheds light on how the narrative structure of the novel puts into question the status of the narrators as reliable sources. This structure also mystifies the story giving the reader a chance to decipher the intent of the characters involved as both narrators and characters. Without taking such structure into account, the readers are missing some key elements in understanding and interpreting the stories told by the narrators.
Richard Powers is one of American famous contemporary writers, a rising star of American postmodernist fiction, and one of leading representatives of the Generation Xers as well. He explores the impacts of some factors such as ecological environment, social culture, and family ethics on our modern society by use of his abundant knowledge about gene engineer, neurology, family ethics, etc. He explores the relationships between human and nature, human and society, human and human. Generosity, fusing science with literature perfectly, is one of prominent information fictions by Richard Powers, which narrate a fascinating thoughtful story about the secret of happiness. From the perspective of ecological philosophy, this article explores human being ecology embodied in this fiction, which thinks that the earth is an ecosphere, also a largest ecosystem in which human being, just a part of it, is a small ecosystem and runs according to natural law. Ecological human being had his own ecology including physical property, social property and understanding and attitudes towards nature. Excessive human activity, especially the abuse of science and technology will result in destructive impact on human being ecology，bring about serious effect on normal running and harmonious evolvement of ecosystem containing human being and nature, and it must be faced squarely and solved urgently.
