Fidelity And Treason: A Study Of Howard Goldblatt’s Literary Translation

Based on the fact that cultural differences between nations have to be handled duringthe translating process, and dealing with the transmission of the interlingual andintercultural information will inevitably encounter the loss, distortion, or addition of theoriginal information, the French literary sociologist Robert Escarpit keenly put forward thenotion “Translation is always a sort of creative treason”(1987:137). Professor XieTianzhen could not agree more with Robert Escarpit and thinks that “it reveals the essenceof translation, especially literary translation”(2012:33).“Creative treason is a kind ofrectification and supplement to the traditional translation theories”(ibid:37). Since theearly of the1990s till now, Mr. Xie has been introducing it in his academic articles, andfinally gave a comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth elaboration in his monographMedio-translatology published in1999.Creative treason admits the value of the original and borrows such ideas as “afterlife”that the translator endows the original with from deconstructionism and “legitimate prejudice”from modern Hermeneutics. It expounds, from the height of both culture and comparativeliterature, that literary translation is a process of re-creation. Creative treason entitles thetranslator to the equal right to dialogue with the original author and the reader, thus providing abrand-new perspective for reexamining the nature of literary translation and the translator’ssubjective status in the translating process.“As a translator, especially a conscientious andresponsible translator, he’s sure to pursue subjectively100%fidelity to the original and100%reproduction of the original information in his translated version. However, this is actuallyimpracticable. There must be the disparity between the original and the translated version,which inevitably results in the existence of creative treason in translation”(ibid:36). Creativetreason admits the translator’s subjective initative——overcoming creatively the limitations oftranslation in pursuit of faithful reproduction of the original. Therefore, creative treasonand fidelity don’t contradict, but supplement each other.Chinese literature is gradually going towards the world. Howard Goldblatt, known asGe Haowen in Chinese and acclaimed as “the foremost translator of modern andcontemporary Chinese literature” by Professor Xi Zhiqing, has published Englishtranslations of more than50novels and collections of short stories by over30writers from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Howard Goldblatt is without doubt themost important person regarding the spread of Chinese literature and he has translated themost Chinese literary works of the highest quality. For more than three decades of histranslation career, Howard Goldbaltt has been seeking to strike a balance between fidelityand creativity. As an American sinologist who knows quite well about Chinese culture, hedemonstrates noble feelings and subjective initiative of a translator with great foresight andrich sense of mission. At the same time, he’s also influenced by the ideology, poetics, andpatronage of the target culture. During the translating process, he attaches importance tothe linguistic and cultural differences and acceptability of the target readers, has insightinto the nature of “faithful re-creation”of translation, makes a breakthrough of thetraditional binary opposition of “foreignization” and “domestication”, and seeks the goldenmean practice. However, Howard Goldblatt is quite “unknown” in Chinese translationcircles although his English translations enjoy good reputation abroad. So far no one hasdone comprehensive and systematic research on his thoughts and achievements in literarytranslation, analyzed the phenomena of fidelity and treason in his English versions, andprobed into the factors behind his success and revelations that his literary translation givesus in “going out” of Chinese literature.Mo Yan, the first Chinese national to be awarded by the Nobel, is one of the mostprominent contemporary Chinese writers best known to the West and his English translatorHoward Goldblatt plays an indispensable role in introducing Mo’s works to the Westernreadership. Mo’s novel Shengsi pilao, published in2006and its English version Life andDeath Are Wearing Me Out translated by Goldblatt made him the winner of the2009Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, and also The Washington Post Book World BestBook. However, so far no one in translation circles has done in-depth and meticulousresearch on this English version. Based on the linguistic, cultural, and textual analyses ofHoward Goldblatt’s English version of Shengsi pilao by Mo Yan, the author of thisdissertation demonstrates that excellent literary translations cannot do without creativetreason and that creative treason is an essential means by which the translator realizes hisor her fidelity to the original at a higher level.This dissertation comprises six chapters. Chapter one mainly states the researchbackground and motivation, research purpose and significance, methods of research, and the framework of the dissertation. Chapter two is the literature review of related studies oncreative treason home and abroad, current research on Howard Goldblatt and histranslations, and Goldblatt’s translation thoughts. Chapter three makes a thorough study onthe theoretical basis of this dissertation——creative treason in literary translation, mainlyincluding subjects, types, causes, and features of creative treason in literary translation.Chapter four, the main body of this dissertation, focuses on the case study. Firstly, there arebrief introductions of Mo Yan and his literary world, Shengsi pilao and its artistic features.Then follow the detailed analyses on the phenomena of fidelity and treason represented inGoldblatt’s English version Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out at the linguistic, cultural,and textual levels. Based on the analyses, Goldblatt’s principle of simplification andcombined application of both foreignization and domestication are summarized. After that,the author of this dissertation finally rethinks the values and limitations of creative treasonin literary translation, and the dialectical relationship between fidelity and creative treason.Chapter five probes into the factors and revelations of Goldblatt’s success in literarytranslation, in which his excellent bilingual competence, deep love for Chinese literatureand literary translation, strong sense of responsibility for target readers, and goodrelationship with the original authors are emphasized. Then the author reflects onChinese-English translator models and tentatively constructs the ideal Chinese-Englishtranslator model. Chapter six is a conclusion, in which the limitations of this dissertationare pointed out and some suggestions are put forward for further research.