On Pearl S. Buck's Translation Of Shui Hu Zhuan

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) is not only the first writer in the world to receive theNobel Prize for literature for her Chinese-subject novels and biographies, but also thefirst translator who puts an unabridged edition of Shui Hu Zhuan, one of the fourgreatest classic Chinese novels, into English. For a long time, however, researchershave focused on her achievements as a novelist and her social and culturalcontributions, and her great efforts in translating have been either ignored or deridedas being"ignorant of' or"distorting"Chinese language and culture; as a result, noserious and systematic study has been made on her translation, leaving behind aregrettably untouched field in Pearl Buck studies. In view of this, the presentdissertation, from the perspective of postcolonial theories and based on the viewpointsand methods of historical studies and Chinese-English contrastive studies, makes anin-depth study of Buck's subjectivity as a translator in her selection of the original textand her strategy of translation; it then probes into her defamiliarizing strategy oftranslation and explores the cultural, ethical and realistic value of her translation, inexpectation of presenting an unabridged and true image of Buck as a translator as wellas offering constructive approaches to and enlightening implications for translationcriticism.The dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One is the Introduction, involving the background, significance,groundwork, objectives and contents, methodology and scope of the present study,and the framework of the dissertation.Chapter Two, the Literature Review, addresses the groundwork for the study,including: (1) A Historical Review of Pearl Buck Studies. It summarizes Buck'sreception in China and the U. S. into three periods: the 1930s-mid 1940s, duringwhich Buck was generally accepted on both sides, though not without different voiceson her literary achievements; the end of the 1940s-mid 1980s, when she wasrejected or ignored due to the ideological hostility between the East and the Westunder the background of Cold War, and the end of the 1980s-the present, in which scholars have been"rediscovering"and"historicizing"her achievements andcontributions. In contrast to these dramatic, roller-coaster changes in Pearl Buckstudies during the past decades, the research on her translation has been stagnant andsilent, particularly during the first two periods, when no study was conducted from thespecific perspective of translation. While the situation has been improved during thelast-period (particularly since the beginning of the new century), problems haveremained in the quantity, effect, keynote and methodology of the research. (2) AReview of the Latest Research on Buck's Translation of Shui Hu Zhuan. Followingthe previous discussion on problems with the study of Buck's translation, this parthighlights three major problems in the recent study, i.e., oversimplified moraljudgments, biased research paradigms, and lack of theoretical perspectives andin-depth text analyses; it then suggests introducing the historiographical approachthereto, broadening the theoretical horizon, and giving more importance to thetext-based study. (3) An Overview of Postcolonial Theories.It reviews the kernelideas of postcolonial theories and postcolonial translation theories, arguing thatpostcolonial theories, discrepant as they seem to be, share some common ground inthree aspects, i.e., the emphasis upon and respect for difference and diversity, theadvocacy of subjective power and cultural identity, and the tendency to go beyond thedualistic epistemology and methodology; and that postcolonial translation theories areaddressed to the overthrow of the hegemonic presupposition in traditional concepts oftranslation, the advocacy of equal dialogues among cultures, the revealing andcriticism of the"conspiracy"between translation and colonization, and the ontologicalconcern for the translator's subjective behavior. It then discusses the applicability ofpostcolonial (translation) theories to the present study, asserting that the applicabilityis based on at least three aspects, i.e., the theoretical scope, the translator's culturalidentity and the difference-oriented translation strategy.Chapter Three is an in-depth study of Buck's subjectivity as a translator,involving: (1) A Theoretical Discussion on the Translator's Subjectivity. It starts witha series of definitions and an analysis of the essence of the translator's subjectivity,holding that, while the translator's subjectivity is not only of initiativeness but also ofpassiveness, some scholars tend to exaggerate the translator's subjective roles and to advocate, indiscriminately, the TL-oriented"creative treason"; this is, in essence, thetraditional dualistic model of study. Secondly, it analyzes the status of the translator inthe hands of theocracy and metaphysics, pointing out that the religious origin oftranslation has made"faithfulness"a complex that translation and translation studieshave not been able to get rid of during the last 2,000 years, and that translation and thetranslator have, from. the very beginning, been labeled as"instruments"and reducedto a subordinate, marginal position; and the impact of metaphysical epistemology hasconfined translating and translation studies to the pursuit of the absolute"meaning"and .the stagnant, dualistic disputes thereon; as a result, the translator has neverreceived due attention. Finally, thanks to the rejection of metaphysics in philosophysince the middle of the 19^thcentury, and particularly to the dethroning of the authorityof the author and the textual meaning by Deconstructionism, the translator started, forthe first time in history, to be free; later, postcolonial translation theorists went furtherto associate the translator's subjectivity with their appeals for power and difference,making the translator, via his/her"resistance","presence"or"visibility", an importantforce of cultural intervention; meanwhile, the introduction of the notion ofintersubjectivity helps effectively to avoid the possibility of subjectivism or solipsismresulted from the unrestricted advocacy of subjectivity, thereby reconfirming thetranslator's subjectivity while promoting his/her status. (2) An Analysis of Buck'sSubjectivity in Her Translation of Shui Hu Zhuan. Buck's cultural identity has gonebeyond the traditional geopolitical or racial boundary, and it is for this reason that sheshould not be regarded simply as"American"or"Chinese","white"or"yellow";rather, she belongs to another category-"cultural hybrids". This identity, whileputting her in an advantaged position in cross-cultural communication, makes hermore often uneasy and contradictory about herself; besides, it exerts certain influencesupon her translational selection and strategy: her choice of Shui Hu Zhuan results notonly from her personal preference for the literary and realistic value of the original,but also from her economic and political considerations, and her motives fortranslating seem to be inconsistent or even conflicting in different periods of her life;her translation strategy is basically an SL-oriented one (i.e., foreignizing translation),yet her version is not without strange expressions that have little to do with the original, and even with some domesticated expressions. All these can more or less betraced to her hybridized identity of culture. In addition, this part of the dissertation,based on facts and historical data, explores Buck's subjective roles in other aspects oftranslation, including her selection of the specific edition of the original, hertranslation of the title, and her manipulation of the text. Showing the complexity anddiversity of the translator's subjectivity, it claims that Buck's value as a translator liesin the fact that she consciously chose to introduce Chinese literature and culture to theWest at a time when Western learning was progressively spreading to the East, andthat she tried to be a"present"or"visible"translator fighting against the culturalhegemony of the West at a time when translators were demanded or forced to be"invisible".Chapter Four is a probe into Buck's difference-oriented strategy of translation. Itfirst formulates the appeals of postcolonial translation theories for difference anddiversity, pointing out the essence of"harmony in diversity"and its emphasis onheterogeneous discourse and defamiliarizing strategy as embodied in translation.Secondly, based on an in-depth investigation of the text, it proves that Buck adopts thedefamiliarizing strategy on all three dimensions: lexical, syntactic and textual. On thelexical dimension, the strategy is characterized linguistically by literal translation,"taking apart"set terms of the original, transplanting the original word order andcollocation, and strange expressions that have little to do with the original, andculturally by the literal translation of the original temporal expressions, names andforms of address, cursing remarks, and allusions and other culture-loaded terms; yetthere are a few domesticated expressions in her translation, both linguistic and culturalOn the syntactic dimension, the strategy is characterized by the representation of theoriginal syntactic juxtaposition, sentence order, shift of subjects, and sentence rhythm.And on the textual dimension, it is featured by the keeping of the original storytellingstyle and speech forms (particularly the direct speech). Finally, the dissertationdiscusses the significances and implications of Buck's translation to cross-culturalcommunication, translation ethics and the contemporary Chinese-foreign translationpractice. It argues that her difference- and diversity-oriented strategy, indicating herrecognition and advocacy of the value of Chinese novels, is of great importance to the intercultural exchange in an era of globalization and the postcolonial context; that herrespect for difference and diversity, which goes beyond the temporal, racial andgeopolitical restrictions, has not only set a pioneering example to the cultural agendaof postcolonial translation theories, but also set up an ethical monument for today'stranslators, and that, under the background of the international promotion of Chineselanguage and culture, Buck's practice has offered invaluable experience thereto interms of the necessity, selection and strategy of translation.Chapter Five is the Conclusion, which summarizes the major findings andconclusions of the present dissertation, points out its limitations, and proposessuggestions for further study in this regard.