However, we may know that novel contains fiction。 The plot and character will be twisted or exaggerated more or less。 Taking the novel world as the truth of American society seems partial and easily making conclusion that “People in America can not get justice” seems impulsive。 What we know from the preface is that Mr。Zhou’s own understanding of the version is based on a biased base, which separates himself from the normal readers。 Naturally, the final version may fail to satisfy the most peoples’ tastes。
Therefore, it is noticeable that there is obvious incorrect or inappropriate translation of Zhou’s version。 This problem is mentioned by Zhao Ran:
…yet it has attracted widespread criticism among Chinese readers who lamented on its poor translation at amazon。com。cn, China's biggest online bookstore。 Meanwhile,
previous studies on his translation have also confirmed the dissonance felt from Chinese readers。
Finally, it leads to the question: under what circumstances, Zhou’s translation has failed to satisfy the readers and researchers? Some researchers have done papers about the version from different levels like lexical, grammatical or stylistic angles。 However, to understand why the bridge between the version and readers is blocking, register is the best way to check whether the translator success or not。 The three factors of register “field, tenor, mode” are the benchmarks, which will influence the coherence of the target-language text。 Thus, this paper will go further and explore the version from the perspective of register。论文网
2。 Literature Review
2。1 Research about the book
2。1。1 Oversea Researches
The oversea researchers are most interested in how the book reflects the unseen side of American culture, such as the Gang and Italian immigrants。 In “The Godfather And American Culture How The Corleon became ‘Our Gang’ ”, Messenger takes the success of The Godfather as “a myth of pided loyalties that has found a central place in American ideology” (Messenger, 173-298)。 It is also agreed by Robert Viscusi。 He mentions in his article that “Don Vito Corleone erects a separate paese, a sort of Italy-within, and thus reconstructs the kind of pided loyalty that has been, from the start, constitutional for Italians in Italy” (Viscusi, 12)。 Besides, there are other researches about the text studying the interpreting of the roles, leadership of Don and the construction of family。
Briefly speaking, the social issues about “Italian immigrants” are the main focus of oversea studying。 The researchers are forming the framework of this Italian family: How the Italian immigrants and their children integrate into American society; how they find their ways to keep the traditional Italian family structure in a new society; how their descendants react to the changes。 By way of the monitor's peeping, it is the theme of social conflicts that really matters。
2。1。2 Domestic Researches
There are three major pisions of the domestic researches about The Godfather on the perspective of context。 From them the similar “Mafia” theme is also discussed。 Gui Ping gives her opinion about the stimulation of the Gang culture and how the “illegal crimes” hide under the surface of laws and rules。 It is believed in the article that “the decriminalization of criminal revenge is the theme of The Godfather”。
“American dream” has also been brought up as one of the themes。 Luo Qianni gives her own opinion on the question of why Don can contract his business in grey zone so successfully:
American dream is a faith that build on the basis of Capitalist ideology: if only you have determination, not afraid of competition, the opportunity will come for you。 This is a special attraction for the immigrants, just as the Italian immigrants in the book。