A Study On Translation Strategies Of Big Breast And Wide Hips From Eco-translatological Perspective

In recent years, more and more people are concerned with ecology balance. It is Professor Hu Gengshenwho firstly put forward this brand new theoretical discussion of eco-translatology. He raises eco-translatology byvirtue of combining translation activities with ecology perspective. From then on, a large number of translationpractices were accomplished in the light of eco-translatology, hence this theory becomes more mature.Hu Gengshen applied the basic ideas and principles of Darwin’s theory to the translation study. He proposeda feasible approach named Translation as Adaptation and Selection (hereinafter referred to as: TAS). Thefundamental concepts of ecology were applied to this practical approach, including “Natural Selection”,“Survival of the Fittest”,“Survival through Selection”. TAS put the Darwin’s theory into practice, obeying thenatural laws and respecting human beings’“adaptation” and “selection” instinct. It emphasizestranslator-centeredness. Translators should not only adapt to the specific translational eco-environment but alsomake some adaptive selections during translation process. When it comes to the translational eco-environment, itcomprises many elements, including the worlds that the source text (ST) showed and the source text language,target text (TT), target language, and comprising the linguistic, cultural, communicative and social aspects, but itis not limited in these aspects. Besides, the author, the client, and the readers are also included. Themulti-dimensional transformations are supposed to be achieved in order to make the TT satisfactory. Becauselanguages, culture as well as communication are usually studied on the basis of eco-translatology, this thesismainly discusses the adaptive selections made on three-dimensional transformations, respectively they arelinguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension.Since Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for2012in Stockholm on October11th,2012. TheSwedish Academy formally announced this encouraging news. From then on, Mo Yan’s novels were studied by alarge number of scholars from home and abroad. Actually, the English version Big Breast and Wide Hips is oneof the masterpieces translated by Howard Goldblatt who has translated Mo Yan’s novels up to seven.This thesis adopted English version Big Breast and Wide Hips as research object from eco-translatologyperspective. It mainly discussed and analyzed three questions: First, in which aspects did Howard Goldblattmake adaptation and selection when he faced the ST? Second, what kind of translation strategies did thetranslator adopt from three dimensions? Third, why did the translators make such adaptation and selection? Thisthesis finds that Howard Goldblatt takes the factors that make up the translational eco-environment intoconsideration when he translates Big Breast and Wide Hips. These factors have their interrelationship. The translators must strive to achieve the multi-dimensional adaptation and adaptive selection in the hope of gettingthe satisfying translation works. After analyzing the data, it can be found that the translator uses differenttranslation strategies in different dimensions to make target readers understand the Mo Yan’s novel completely.Actually, the fact that the translator uses different translation strategies from three dimensions can be regarded ashis adaptation and selection to the translational eco-environment. So this thesis reaches three conclusions: firstly,once the translator faced the specific ST, he made the selection and adaptation from two aspects. The one lies in“internal” aspect, which refers to the translator’s selection and adaptation to the needs and competence. Theother lies in “external” aspect, in other words, the translator’s selection and adaptation to the translationaleco-environment; secondly, after analyzing data carefully, it can be concluded that even in the samedimension(linguistic dimension), the translator uses different translation strategies so that he can fit the specificeco-translational environment. Moreover, he mainly adopts domestication in cultural dimension. He uses bothforeignization and domestication alternately to adapt to the communicative dimension so as to balance theobviously different constraining elements. His choices in translation strategies can be understood as thetranslator’s adaptation to the translational eco-environment; thirdly, the reason why the translator makes suchselection and adaptation based on the translation strategies is that the translator-centeredness is the core conceptof TAS. The translator-centeredness has great effect on the translation process. It is the translator’s appropriateselection of translation strategies that makes the English version Big Breast and Wide Hips so successful.