Translator’s Adaptation And Selection: An Analysis Of Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Of Hongga Oliang Jiazu

Howard Goldblatt, a celebrated American translator, is regarded as the most outstanding translator ofcontemporary Chinese literature in the English-speaking countries. Up to the present, he has been learning,teaching and studying Chinese for nearly half a century, which has equipped him with systematic andprofound knowledge about Chinese language and culture. He is a dedicated translator who spares no effortto introduce Chinese literature, especially Chinese contemporary novels, to the western world. Histranslated novels are well accepted by the western readers due to his distinguished bilingual and biculturalcompetence. However, his translations have not attracted much attention of Chinese scholars andresearchers until the very last few years. They have carried out some notable studies on Goldblatt’stranslation styles, thoughts and techniques through the combination with his translated texts; however, forsuch a great translator like Goldblatt, these studies are far from sufficient.After the “cultural turn” in translation studies, researches on translators’ subjectivity have increaseddramatically. Hu Gengshen’s approach to translation as adaptation and selection is a translator-centeredapproach whose thematic conception is “translation is adaptation and selection”, core idea is“translator-centeredness”, and basic elements include the essence, process, principle, methods andevaluation criteria of translation. According to Hu’s approach, translation is defined as “a selection activityof the translator’s adaptation to fit the translational eco-environment”(胡庚申,2004:220-221).This thesis endeavors to analyze the adaptation and selection that Goldblatt has made to fit thetranslational eco-environment during the process of translating Mo Yan’s Honggaoliang Jiazu. Thetranslational eco-environment that Goldblatt faces generally includes two parts, namely, the worldpresented by the source text/language and the world presented by the target language. The former containsthe source text, the author, and Chinese language and culture, and the latter contains the target readers, thetarget language ideology, and the publisher. The process of Goldblatt’s adaptation and selection can also bedivided into two phases, namely, the pre-translating phase and the while-translating phase. During thepre-translating phase, Goldblatt is selected as the translator by the source text, which can also be regarded as his adaptation to the world presented by the source text/language; while during the while-translatingphase, Goldblatt adapts to the world presented by the target language and selects his translation strategiesand techniques accordingly at the same time.It is concluded that translation is not merely a language activity, but a natural ecological activity that isclosely connected with its surroundings. Therefore, all the selections that the translator makes during theprocess of translating should be able to fit the translational eco-environment. The thesis aims to open up anew way of studying Goldblatt and his translations and provide some suggestions for future Chineseliterary translation.