A Study Of The English Version Of Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge From The Perspective Of Ideological Manipulation

Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge was the second novel created by Mo Yan. This book was chosen by Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy as the guide book of all Mo Yan’s works. Even it was compared to Catch-22 and The Grapes of Wrath. The success is closely related with its translator Howard Goldblatt.Howard Goldblatt regards translation as rewriting, which can be noticed clearly in the English version. Besides, his translation thought echoes with Lefevere’s rewriting theory. Through the research in the past, it is noticed that the influence of ideology on translation was emphasized by Chinese and foreign scholars long time ago. That is to say, ideology is the vital factor influencing translation. In this research, it is found that many rewriting phenomena in this novel are closely related with ideology, so it is a kind of loss without doing research from this perspective.The term “cultural turn” was put forward in translation studies in the 1980 s. From then on, the influence of the social and cultural backgrounds on the translator and the translation process is taken into consideration. The Belgium scholar, Andre Lefevere believes that translation is rewriting in literary system. For Lefevere, the literary system in which translation functions is controlled by two main factors. One is professionals within the literary system, who partly determine the dominant poetics; the other is patronage outside the literary system. The professionals include critics and academics and so on, who decide on the poetics. The patronage includes publishers, the social group and the political parties and so on, who are mainly influenced by ideology. The ideology plays an important role in the selection of the source text, translation strategies and translation principles. The poetics concentrates on blending the translated versions into the dominant poetics at a given time, and patronage manipulates the translators to make sure their translation cater to the dominant ideology and poetics in the culture of the target language.For Lefevere, the most important factor is ideology. This thesis will be analyzed from two perspectives the dominant ideology and the translator’s ideology. The translator’s ideology is influenced by patronage. The translator and the patronage are influenced by the dominant ideology. On one hand, Ideology can manipulate the rewriting of the source text to cater to the dominant ideology by domestication strategy. On the other hand, respect for the source text is the principle to show faithfulness to the source text by foreignization strategy. This thesis analyzes the whole translation process from the perspective of ideological manipulation. It is the most important factor in Lefevere’s rewriting theory. It is concluded in the research that ideology plays a vital role in the whole translation process, from the selection of the source text to the choices of translation strategies and principles. In order to cater to the target readers’ ideology, domestication is the major translation strategy.