On The Translated Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu By Mo Yan In America: Receptions And Variations

Mo Yan's writing has gained him a considerable audience -- not only in China,but also overseas,where he is considered one of the most talented and interesting Chinese writers.People have done many researches and given some critics on his works from various perspectives.But only several researches on the English translation of Mo Yan's novels can be found,which just argue the translator's translation from the traditional literal level.Howard Goldblat has translated 5 long novels of Mo Yan's.The thesis will take Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu as a case study with the following reasons:Firstly,for Mo Yan's novels of English versions,only Red Sorghum is run commercially at the beginning,and published by the major press and become a best-seller in the west. Secondly,some critics classify Mo Yan into root-seekers for his Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu(陈晓明,1999:42),which can be viewed as root-seeking writing in terms of the thematic concern.What root-seeking literature charms Anglophones partly is Oriental themes such as Taoist and Confucian doctrines and mysterious scenery.However,as far as Mo's artistic expression is concerned,many critics hold that he belongs to the avant-garde school(於可训,2003:218).So it is representative and persuasive to take this novel as the material to do a case study.Based on the post-colonial translation theory,Andre Lefevere's Culture-oriented translation theory,imagology in comparative literature this research plans to take one of Mo Yan's representative novels Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu in 1980s and its English version Red Sorghum translated by Howard Goldblatt as the materials to do a tentative study.This thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 shows literature reviews about the study subject,assumptions, methodologies,and contributions of the thesis.Chapter 2,Chapter 3 and Chapter4 are the main parts of this thesis which are to argue the translator Howard Goldblatt's receptions and the variations he made in his translation from characteristics,plots and narrative mode respectively.Here,reception refers to his selection of source text.The translator is inclined to choose works echoing western literary traditions in terms of narrative techniques,and artistic features,which account for their poetic inclination. In the process of importation,the translator tends to adopt the "domesticating" approach in text selection and translation due to what they believe is a prestigious position of his own culture."On every level of the translation process,it can be shown that if linguistic considerations enter into conflict with considerations of an ideological and/or poetological nature,the latter tend to win out."(Levere,1992:5). From the detailed discussion,we can see that Howard Goldblatt cannot be divorced from the given cultural context and he can be unavoidable influenced by the ideology and poetics of his country and himself.Moreover,his attitude towards the translation is really reader-centered.He cannot but consider of potential readership and market so that some variations in English version of Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu also occur.Chapter 5 is a conclusion,which indicates the limitations of the thesis and proposes some questions for further research...