On Howard Goldblatt's Translation Thoughts

The development of linguistics, aesthetics, communication, social-semiotics and information theories have enhanced the development of translation studies, then the academic community began to study translation as science, the depth and systematicness of which have drawn wide attention from people. It should be an important task to sum up famous translators'translation characteristics and skills through doing overall, systematic and profound research on them. The research includes their way of life, translation experience as well as their translation thoughts. Professor Howard Goldblatt has made great achievement on translating modern and contemporary Chinese literature works. As an eminent scholar of foreign language circle, he has made remarkable contribution to the transmission of Chinese culture. But until now, study on Howard Goldblatt is merely limited on simple summarization of his translation thoughts and introduction of his translation works.The author has collected a wide range of materials about Howard's translations and studied his exposition on translation thoroughly in order to sort out and describe Howard's translation activities as well as his translation thoughts comprehensively and systematically. The research on Howard's translation thoughts can not only help construct China's own translation theory but also play an instructive role in cultivating young translators.Apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion, the thesis is composed of four chapters. In the Introduction, the author introduces the situation of the study. Chapter one is literature review, which can be divided into two parts, the first part introducing the life of Jiang Rong and his LangTuteng and the second part introducing Howard's life and his translations. Howard's translation thoughts are stated in chapter two: translation is compromise of fidelity and creativity; translation is betrayal; translation is rewriting; translation is cross-cultural communication activity; translators'responsibilities. Chapter three is the manifestation of Howard Goldblatt's translation thoughts in his translation of Lang Tuteng. Chapter four is the analysis of the translation strategies of foreignization and domestication Howard applied in translating Lang Tuteng, which reflects Howard's translation thoughts.