Howard Goldblatt’s Rewriting In Translation

Despite China’s great efforts to promote its culture,Chinese novels are still not well received among western readers owing to numerous challenges.That being said,Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Chinese novels has gained popularity in the west.His English version of Mo Yan’s novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out has made the writer winner of the 2009 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature,and the book The Washington Post Book World Best Book.Thus,it is natural for us to explore the main ingredients behind his success and draw inspiration to help Chinese literature better “go out”.On many occasions,Howard Goldblatt mentioned that the nature of translation is rewriting and translation is affected by many forces.What is Goldblatt’s view on rewriting?What are the main forces behind his rewriting? What are the main translation methods in Goldblatt’s rewriting? To answer these questions,this thesis adopts translation theorist André Lefevere’s rewriting theory and the three main constraints of rewriting as theoretical framework.Translation is rewriting of the original text under the constraints of ideology,poetics and patronage.Ideology in the literature field extends far beyond politics and covers customs,religion,culture,social mentality and other beliefs of an individual or a nation.Poetics can be understood in both narrow and broad senses,between which only poetics in the narrow sense is covered in this research.As for patronage,it has ideological,status and economic components.The three constraints are intertwined and they interact to exert their influence.The translator is not the only decision maker in the translation practice.This dissertation is a descriptive and explanatory study on Howard Goldblatt’s rewriting under the framework of the rewriting theory.It’s composed of five chapters.Chapter one is research background and motivation,research questions and methodology.Chapter two is literature review of studies on the rewriting theory,and on Howard Goldblatt’s rewriting.Chapter three states the theoretical framework of this thesis,namely the three constraints of rewriting.Chapter four is detailed analysis of Howard Goldblatt’srewriting in his translation of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out.Finally,the author gives the conclusion of this dissertation.Through the case study of the novel and analysis of Howard Goldblatt’s interviews,articles and translation notes,the author summarizes Goldblatt’s view on and his justifications for rewriting.An objective attitude should be held towards Goldblatt’s view on rewriting.The study concludes that the above-mentioned three constraints are influencing Goldblatt’s rewriting in aspects like selection of the original work,translation strategies,market response,etc.Goldblatt adopts four main translation methods.Translators should respect,but not confined by the original work.