| Put forward by Hu Gengshen, Eco-translatology is a relatively newinterdisciplinary theory which is based on Darwin‘s theory of evolution—the principleof preservation of strong ones, elimination of weak ones and the survival of the fittest.According to Eco-translatology, translation with translator centeredness is an activityof translator‘s adaptation to the translational eco-environment and adaptive selectionin the process of translating. Translational eco-environment is an entity made up ofsource language, source text, target language, translator, target version and readers.Translator centeredness emphasizes translator‘s creativity in the process of translation.The translator is supposed to adapt to the translational eco-environment and makesadaptive selection, which is multi-dimensional—linguistic, cultural andcommunicative dimension. The target text can be accepted when the translator adaptsto the translational eco-environment, exercises a central role in translation and selectsmulti-dimensionally.Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in literature in2012. His works receive wideattention, including the translated version. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is oneof Mo Yan‘s most famous works. Howard Goldblatt translates a large number of MoYan‘s works which are widely accepted by western readers, making greatcontributions to the development of Chinese contemporary literature in western world.This thesis explores Goldblatt‘s translation of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Outfrom the perspective of Eco-translatology. Mo Yan‘s unique writing style, thehistorical background of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out and the ideology of thetarget language society and readers all belong to translational eco-environment. Allthe terms mentioned above add difficulties to the process of translating the novel.Therefore, Goldblatt must adapt to the translational eco-environment and makeselection from linguistic, cultural and communicative dimension in order to make thetranslated version of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out widely accepted by targetreaders. The thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is literature review, includingthe theoretical basis and development of Eco-translatology. Part two is a briefintroduction to Eco-translatology. It is about the definition and main terms ofEco-translatology—translational eco-environment, translator centeredness, adaptationand selection. The history of translation proves that target text is the manifestation oftranslator‘s value. Translation can be regarded as translator‘s adaptation and selectionwith basic principles of natural selection applied in the process of yielding the targettext. Plenty of scholars at home and abroad have made a large number of researcheson translation from the perspective of the relationship between adaptation andselection. The third part explores Goldblatt‘s adaptation to the translationaleco-environment in the process of translating Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out.According to Eco-translatology, the essence of translation is adaptation and selection(Hu,2008b). When translating, the translator is supposed to adapt to the translationalenvironment. The purpose of adaptation is to survive. The adaptation of translator andtranslated version differs from that of other creatures. The translationaleco-environment is quite complicated. For example, Mo Yan‘s creation and languagecarry special characteristics; there is much cultural and linguistic information in thenovel since it is also set in Northeast Township in Gaomi; the ideology and readinghabits of the target language and readers call for Goldblatt‘s adaptation to thetranslational eco-environment. With the guidance of his bilingual and biculturalcompetence, as well as rigorous translation attitude, Goldblatt reaches the successfuladaptation to the translational eco-environment. Part four analyses Goldblatt‘sadaptive selection. The translator‘s task is to conduct a series of selection in order tomake the target text correspond to the source text (Y. X. Li,2001:32). In translatingLife and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Goldblatt‘s adaptive selection is practiced indifferent levels and dimensions—the linguistic dimension, the cultural dimension andthe communicative dimension. Selection from linguistic dimension deals with lexical,syntactic and textual level. The translation of cultural-specific expressions and sayingsare discussed in cultural dimension. Characters‘names and clothes reveal thecommunicative intention in communicative dimension. The fifth part concludes the main findings, limitations of the thesis, as well as suggestions for further researches. |
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