A Study Of Howard Goldblatt As A Translator

Howard Goldblatt is the most accomplished translator of modern and contemporary Chinese literature. According to Professor Xia Zhiqing (Liu Zaifu,1999:22), he is "the chief translator of modern and contemporary Chinese literature." In his nearly thirty years of translation practice, Goldblatt has translated about50Chinese novels. Among his acclaimed translations, Turbulence by Jia Pingwa won the1989Pegasus Prize for Literature, Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong won the2008Man Asian Prize, The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong got the2010Man Asian Prize, and Moon Opera by Bi Feiyu was awarded the2011Man Asian Prize. This thesis aims at studying Howard Goldblatt as a translator, discussing his translation views and characteristics of his translations.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One is the introduction, presenting the research objectives, methodology and thesis structure. Chapter Two introduces Howard Goldblatt’s life, translation practice and the historical background of his translation activities. Chapter Three is the literature review, reviewing current studies on Howard Goldblatt as a translator in China and abroad. Chapter Four consists of two parts. The first part illustrates Howard Goldblatt’s views on translation:the translator should be faithful to original and cautious in his translating practice; the nature of translation is rewriting; translation is cross-cultural communication. The second part analyzes the external and internal factors that help form Howard Goldblatt’s translation views. The external factors include the patrons, the leading ideology of the then society, and the social factors, and the internal factors include the translator’s literary thought and his cultural identity. Chapter Five explores the characteristics of Howard Goldblatt’s translations:being aware of the needs of the readers, using domestication as the translation strategy, and focusing on faithfulness, readability and acceptability of the translation. Chapter Six is the conclusion, which briefly summarizes the main idea of the thesis, points out the limitations of this study, and offers suggestions for further research on this topic.