A Study On The Translation Of Desert Rites From The Perspective Of Socio-translation Studies

Desert Rites,the representative work of western Chinese literature by Xue Mo,was co-translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin and published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House in 2018.It brought the unique local culture and spiritual power of China’s far west to life for foreign readers.As a complex social activity,the translation practice of Desert Rites cannot be accomplished by translator alone but involves many social agents in the field.However,domestic scholars have mostly focused on the linguistic transformation of Desert Rites at the textual level,paying little attention to the social factors behind this translation practice.From the perspective of socio-translation studies,this thesis makes a descriptive study of Goldblatt and Lin’s translation of Desert Rites using Bourdieu’s key concepts of field,capital and habitus in order to reveal the interaction between related fields and the influence of main agents on the translation.Firstly,the thesis finds that under the guidance of the power field,the main content of Chinese literature “going global” in the literature field has been shift to contemporary Chinese literature with national characteristics.Desert Rites was thus translated and published under the promotion of major agents such as the publisher,translator,co-translator and author.Secondly,the selection of Desert Rites is mainly influenced by the capital of the publishing house,the aesthetic characteristics imprinted in the translators’ habitus,and the author’s cultural capital.Thirdly,the translation principle is mainly influenced by the translators’ habitus,and cultural capital possessed by Sylvia Li-chun Lin also have impact on Goldblatt’s habitus through years of cooperation.Finally,in order to present the characteristics of the original work while ensuring the readability and fluency of the translation,the translators adopt flexible translation strategies and manipulate the original text through paragraph deletion,splitting,combination and rearrangement.Such strategies are influenced not only by the reader-oriented consciousness imprinted in the translator’s habitus,but also by the author’s habitus and publisher’s habitus and capital.On this basis,this thesis summarizes the interaction mechanism between various factors affecting the translation of Desert Rites,in order to provide theoretical and practical reference for western Chinese literature “going global”.