| In 2012, Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. It was the first time that Chinese writer had won this prize. Since then, Chinese literature got an increasing popularity. Now, the translation of Chinese literature has been a hot topic in translation studies. Shengsi Pilao is one of the masterpieces of Mo Yan, which was translated by Sinologist Howard Goldblatt. The translation of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out was widely praised by academic groups and readers. Since Howard Goldblatt was honored as “the midwife who transfers Chinese literary works to English-speaking countries”, translated versions by him were highly accepted by western publishing houses and readers. Moreover, these versions play an influential role in translation studies.Based on Andre Lefevere’s Manipulation Theory, this thesis analyzes the manipulation phenomena in the translation of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Searching for the reasons for manipulation phenomena and summarizing the translation strategies in the target text would contribute to gaining enlightenment for the Chinese-English translation of literary works.Under the analyses of manipulation phenomena in the English version, the author of this thesis finds that Goldblatt’s translation is not completely faithful to the original work in terms of lots of rewriting phenomena. There are many culture-enriched expressions in source text; most of them were rewritten by Goldblatt since they would easily puzzle the target readers. In the process of translation, Goldblatt adopted some translation strategies to ensure that the target text would conform to the patronage, dominant ideology and poetics in target culture. More importantly, target readers’ acceptance is always Goldblatt’s first consideration. The success of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out brought experience and enlightenment to Chinese-English translation for literary works, especially in the choices of translator, original work and translation strategies. |
PDF Full Text Request