| Huozhe is one of Yu Hua’s representative works in the 1990 s.Written in a colloquial style,this novel reveals humans’ common understanding and experience of “to live”,which easily triggers readers’ thoughts and resonance.It has been translated and introduced to many countries and regions,such as the UK,France,Germany,Japan,and Korea.In 2003,its English version To Live,translated by Michael Berry,was published and well received by readers in English-speaking countries.Studies on various aspects of To Live,such as translation strategies and culture-loaded words,have been conducted by many scholars from different perspectives,such as skopos theory,relevance theory,and translation ethics.On the whole,studies on the role Michael Berry plays in the translation of Huozhe are not great in number.With “cultural turn” in translation studies,more scholars stress and explore the role of the translator in translation,and the translator as a translation subject is highlighted.Concerning language use,translation is a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural activity.In the translation process,the translator,as the language user,fully exerts his/her subjectivity to make a successful transfer between the source and target texts as well as the source and target cultures.In this regard,pragmatics,with language use and language users as its major concern,provides a new angle for studies on translation and translator’s subjectivity.As an important pragmatic theory,adaptation theory elaborates the nature of the process of language use,three properties of language,and four angles of investigation of adaptation theory.Adaptation theory provides a new and clear framework for studies on translation and translator’s subjectivity.This thesis takes adaptation theory as the research angle and employs case study,documentation,and descriptive method to analyze the translation strategies in To Live,the manifestation of translator’s subjectivity,and the factors influencing the exertion of translator’s subjectivity.First,with the four angles of investigation of adaptation theory as the framework,this thesis analyzes the translation strategies in To Live and finds that Michael Berry adopts foreignization and domestication,and uses various translation methods,such as supplement,deletion,and transliteration,to make a successful linguistic and cultural transfer.Second,based on the analysis and summary of the translation strategies,the thesis finds that Michael Berry’s subjectivity is manifested in three aspects.As for translator’s salience,Michael Berry shows his subjective consciousness and initiative in the translation process.From his understanding of the author Yu Hua’s experience and writing,the interpretation of Huzhe,to his concern on the target reader and western culture,he shows high degree of salience.As for translator’s choice of translation strategies,Michael Berry adopts foreignization as the dominating translation strategy and domestication as the auxiliary to flexibly deal with the linguistic and cultural differences,which makes the target text faithful to the source text as well as understandable and acceptable for the target reader.As for translator’s creativity,Michael Berry successfully reproduces the aesthetic effects in To Live.At the formal level,he reproduces the beauty of sounds,words,and structures,while at the non-formal level,he reproduces the beauty of images and artistic conceptions.Finally,the manifestation of Michael Berry’s subjectivity reveals that Michael Berry’s subjectivity is mainly influenced by translation purpose,ideology,view of translation,individual knowledge and aesthetics,and so on.The study of Michael Berry’s subjectivity shown in To Live from the perspective of adaptation theory not only provides a new direction for studies on To Live,but also brings some enlightenment to studies on Michael Berry’s subjectivity.More studies are expected to be conducted on the translator,Michael Berry,who contributes a lot to Chinese culture going global. |
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