An Eco-translatological Study On Michael Berry’s English Translation Of Huozhe

Huozhe is one of the best-sellers in China. Since it was published in1993, the circulation has stayed high. The novel has been translated into many languages. In foreign countries, it is also very popular. The English version of Huozhe was translated by American Michael Berry. When the novel reached American, it hit the best-seller list and stayed there for months. The studies on the original text Huozhe is sufficient. However, few studies have been conducted on Berry and his translation of Huozhe. In view of this, the author of this thesis decides to choose Berry’s translation as research object, with eco-translatology as its theoretical basis. Eco-translatology, which has been just emerging during the past few years, integrates translation and ecology together to analyze the translation process. The theory takes "translator-centeredness" as its core concept, and regards the translation process as adaptation and selection. According to Hu’s theory, translation is a selection activity of the translator’s adaptation to fit the translational eco-environment.On the basis of Hu’s Eco-translatology, the thesis firstly explains the translational eco-environment of Berry’s translation. Then, it analyzes Berry’s adaptation and selection from three dimensions, including linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions to see whether the translation adapts to the translational eco-environment and whether the degree of holistic adaptation and selection is high. The translator Michael Berry respects Chinese culture and keeps the most linguistic forms and language style in his translation, vividly representing the plot of original text in front of target readers. However, because of the great difference between Chinese and American culture and the specialty of original text’s historical background, it is of great difficulty to translate Huozhe. Although Michael Berry took the work seriously and respected the original text, translational inappropriateness still exists, which are pointed out and analyzed by the author in Chapter6.The thesis aims to analyze the influence of translational eco-environment on the translation process, to prove the applicability of eco-translatology, and to make the researchers pay more attention to the young translator Michael Berry who has contributed a lot to the spreading of contemporary Chinese literature to the western readers.