The analysis of translation strategies was grounded on the theoretical frame of Davis (2003). The findings reveal that the translator adopted the strategy of preservation for most of the proper names in the chosen literary text. Several recommendations for translating proper names in the literary texts are finally drawn out. | TRANSLATING PROPER NAMES IN A LITERARY TEXT: A CASE OF HARRY POTTER NOVEL IN VIETNAM Trieu Thu Hang* Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Pham Van Dong, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam Received 22 January 2018 Revised 21 March 2018; Accepted 30 March 2018 Abstract: Translating literary proper names is regarded as one of the challenging but inspiring issues in the field of Translation Studies. Given this context, the present paper aims to analyze the strategies undertaken by the translator when rendering proper names from the English literary text “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2014) into its Vietnamese translation “Harry Potter và Hòn đá phù thuỷ” (2016). To fulfill the research purpose, a descriptive and comparative analysis was made between the source and target text. The analysis of translation strategies was grounded on the theoretical frame of Davis (2003). The findings reveal that the translator adopted the strategy of preservation for most of the proper names in the chosen literary text. Several recommendations for translating proper names in the literary texts are finally drawn out. Keywords: translating proper names, literary text 1. Rationale Hermans (1988, ) accentuates that proper names “occupy an exceptional position with regard to the language system”. Accordingly, translating literary proper names is one of the challenging but inspiring issues in the field of Translation Studies. It is sufficiently challenging when it comes to the translation of the phenomenal Harry Potter novel because this literary text embraces a myriad of unique features, including literary meaningful proper names. Given this context, the paper aims to analyze the translation strategies adopted by the translator in rendering the proper names from the English source text “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2014) into the target culture of Vietnam. 2. Literature review . Literary proper .
