A Study Of Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Of Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

The Cultural Turn in translation study started in1990. As the representative figure of the CultureSchool, Andre Lefevere started to introduce the political, social and cultural factors that are outside theliterary system into translation study. Lefevere s manipulation theory shifted the focus of translation studyfrom the level of language to that of culture. From Lefevere s point of view, translation cannot be done invacuum, or in other words, it is always embedded in specific historical, social and cultural environment,and it is also manipulated and influenced by the target ideology and poetics. Translation is a kind ofrewriting of the source language text to some extent.Mo Yan wrote Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge, which counts as one of his classical novels, in the year of1988. Based on the real event of life, the novel mainly describes the tragedy caused by the garlic glut aswell as the survival state of common farmers at that time. The novel was translated into English by thefamous sinologist Howard Goldblatt in1995. In this novel, Mo Yan combines all of the technical andthematic elements to produce a mature work of art, which is stylistically impressive, emotionally powerfuland intellectually engaging. Besides, Peter Englund who is the chairman of Nobel Prize Committeesuggests that one should start with The Garlic Ballads if one wants to get to know Mo Yan. However, littleattention and research has been given to the translated version since its publication. Therefore, HowardGoldblatt s translation deserves our research.The thesis is illustrated with the case study of Howard Goldblatt s The Garlic Ballard. Based upon themanipulation theory of Andre Lefevere, the author intends to probe into the non-linguistic factors behindthe translation and how the translator rewrites the original. The descriptive methodology has beenemployed in this thesis. Through comparing the target language text with the source text, the author intendsto analyze different translation strategies adopted by the translator to manipulate the source text. Theconclusion the author has reached is that translation is a kind of manipulative rewriting of the original tosome extent. An acceptable translation, or in other words, a successful exchange of culture, has to take themain stream ideology, poetics as well as the patronage into consideration. Manipulation theory not onlyoffers us a persuasive explanation to translation of Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge and deepens ourunderstanding of the Chinese translated canons, but also guides us in our future translation practice.