Harmony Of Translator’s Visibility And Invisibility

Language is the carrier of culture, language will inevitably bear the heritage of itsown culture. Translation practice is rather a kind of cultural transfer than a purelanguage transfer, which makes the translation work more challenging, especially theliterary works.Lang Tu Teng, written by Jiang Rong, is a semi-autobiographical novel, whichdescribes the author’s life and experience as an educated youth living in the Olonbulagof the Inner Mongolian during China’s Cultural Revolution. With its distinctive culturalcharacteristics and its appropriate translation, the novel and its translated version createa sensation both in China and abroad, which is significant for the Chinese cultural andliterature export. Therefore, the present paper attempts to examine the translationstrategies employed in the English version by Howard Goldblatt from the perspective ofSkopos Theory.According to the Skopos theory, translation is a purposeful activity. There arethree rules in skopos theory, they are skopos rule, fidelity rule and coherence rule. Thefidelity rule (intertextual rule) involves the relationship between the source text and thetarget text; the coherence rule (intratextual rule) emphasizes the coherence within thetarget text. Fidelity rule is subordinate to the coherence rule, and both of them aresubordinate to the skopos rule which is the top-ranking rule. The skopos of translationof Lang Tu Teng is determined by the translation brief composed by the initiator,translator. For a long time, there is a dispute over which is superior, foreignization ordomestication. Actually, the translator can not only adopt one strategy in the translationprocess, and which strategy to employ depends on the skopos of translation. And thepresent paper attempts to illustrate the feasibility of combining the both strategies. Forthe convenience of study, the author of this thesis divides the cultural elements embodied in the original novel into four parts, including ecological, material, social,linguistic cultural elements. In all, in order to transmit Chinese culture and realize theintercultural communication, Howard makes himself visible and applies foreignization;in order to cater for target text readers reading habit and pursue their acceptance,Howard makes himself invisible and employs domestication. Howard adopts thestrategy of combining the visibility and invisibility of translator in accordance withdifferent skopos, achieving the anticipated skopos of translation, which turns out to be agreat success. Meanwhile, the success of the translation proves the feasibility of thiscombination, and it offers a new enligtenment and sets a good example for the exportand spread of Chinese literary works and profound culture to the West in the future.