The Manipulation Of Power Discourse On Translation

In October2012, Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature, becoming the first ChineseNobel Prize winner. Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu is one of Mo Yan s most representative works. Itis a long novel written in1986and set under the background of Anti-Japanese War. Famousfor his unique and strong unruly language style, Mo Yan put his Northeast Gaomi Townshiponto the world stage and further spread the Chinese literature into the vision of internationalpublic.Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu has high artistic value and occupies a vital position in Chineseliterature. It has made great contributions to Chinese literature and the great success that MoYan has made is undoubtedly of great significance. As a forerunner, he has made a good startfor Chinese literature ascending to the international arena. It would be worthwhile for us all todeliberate on the phenomenon of the popularity of his works. Meanwhile, as a greatcontributor for Mo Yan s winning of Nobel Prize, Howard Goldblatt rendered Hong GaoLiang Jia Zu into Red Sorghum which is also a key research object of this thesis.Translating activities are a kind of culture exchange rather than simply texttransformation. In the1970s, translation theory researches are transferred to culture level frompure language level and began to explore the impact of cultural, historical and other factors ontranslation. Till the1990s, a famous translation theorist Andre Lefevere published hismonograph Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Reputation, in whichtranslation manipulation theory was expounded systematically, thus formed the manipulationschool. He put forward that translation is not only simple language transformation, but also akind of cultural activity under the influence of various factors such as ideology, poetics,patronage, power, etc. Meanwhile, the French philosopher Michel Foucault proposed thetheory of power discourse. He put power and discourse together to study and pointedout that there is no an absolute literal art or humanity without restriction and influence. Fromthe perspective of translation, translators ideology, standard and motivation are inevitablyclosely related with power discourse.Drawing on these two theories, this thesis attempts to combine Foucault s power discourse theory and Lefevere s manipulation theory, taking Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu as aninstance, to analyze the huge impact brought about by such factors as discourse and power,ideology and poetics. At the same time, the thesis points out that except ideology and poetics,patronage is actually an embodiment of power which intentionally or unintentionallymanipulates translators translation strategies and direction. It provides how power discoursemanipulates translation process and thus exerts influence through the three main factors ofmanipulation theory (ideology, poetics of the target language, and patronage as amanifestation of power) to affect translation.Through the research and analysis of this paper, the author found the mechanism ofmanipulation: Power discourse manipulates target language s ideology and poetics in the formof patronage, one of the three factors, and thus influences the whole process of translation. Onthe basis of the preservance of the original works characteristic style and content, it alsoaccepted the passive manipulation of power discourse and turned it into its own advantage ofa better acceptation of readers in return. This is the reason why Goldblatt s rendition is sosuccessful. All these contribute to the great popularity of Mo Yan s works. Moreover, thestudy is to bring more inspiration to readers in the field of translation, expecting theappearance of more excellent translations to make due contributions to a better transmissionfor the broad and profound Chinese culture.