A Study On Translation Strategies Of Mo Yan’s Works From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

In today’s globalization age,soft power has become an important focus among countries.In order to consolidate the foundation of China’s soft power and enhance China’s international discourse power,the dissemination of Chinese culture is of vital importance.Mo Yan is the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature,and studies on translation of his works are conducive to the dissemination of Chinese culture.As the link of cross-cultural communication,translators should choose appropriate translation strategies to show cultural confidence between different cultural exchanges.The study on translation of Mo Yan’s works aims to explore appropriate translation strategies,demonstrate the unique charm of Chinese culture and promote Chinese culture to go global.Red Lips and Green Mouths,one of Mo Yan’s novellas,published in August 2020,is selected as the research text.The novel describes the changes brought by Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize to his hometown,from which people can see not only the imprints of the people’s lives during the specific revolution times,but also the true plots reflecting the current real life.Mo Yan reflects the problems of modern network society and satirizes the selfish human nature through the image of egoist “Gao Can”.During the translation process,it is found that this work belongs to multiple language styles.There are a large number of spoken folk languages,proverbs,specific revolutionary discourses and modern Internet language in this novel.This feature runs through the full work,and is particularly prominent in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.Meantime,the main idea of this novel is profoundly reflected in Chapter 7,depicting the pros and cons of modern Internet to the fullest.The selected novel reflects the Chinese characteristic culture from a new perspective,so Chapter 3,Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 of Red Lips and Green Mouth are selected as the research text.Adaptation Theory emphasizes usage of language is a process of dynamic adaptation,in which people constantly make dynamic choices to meet their communicative needs.Adaptation Theory explains the process of usage of language from four angles: structural objects of adaptability,contextual correlates of adaptability,dynamics of adaptability,and salience of the adaptation processes.The typical features of Mo Yan’s works chiefly lie in the structure and context.The structural objects of adaptability and contextual correlates of adaptability of Adaptation Theory can guide translators to dynamically choose appropriate English translation strategies.Therefore,this thesis explores the English translation strategies of Mo Yan’s works from the perspective of Adaptation Theory.This thesis first introduces the background and significance of the study,analyzes the current studies on Mo Yan’s works translation,and then summarizes the study on Adaptation Theory from both foreign and domestic levels.After stating the theoretical framework of Adaptation Theory,the feasibility of applying Adaptation Theory is discussed.Finally,combining the language features of the translation text with the four angles of Adaptation Theory,this thesis proposes six English translation strategies,which are free translation,splitting,omitting redundant expressions,transliteration plus explanations,literal translation plus footnotes addition,and literal translation plus free translation.Through the comparison of translation examples,it can be seen that the translation under adaptation theory better adapts to the language and culture of source language and the target language.Meantime,it is further confirmed better translation effects of Mo Yan’s works can be achieved under the guidance of Adaptation Theory,so as to provide some reference for the English translation study of similar works.