On "Adaptation And Selection" From The Perspective Of Eco-Translatology

This thesis intends to explore the "adaptation and selection" during the translation process and evaluate the effect from the perspective of Eco-translatology by applying Mo Yan’s Shengsi Pilao (here and hereafter it refers to the original version) and Howard Goldblatt’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (here and hereafter it refers to the translated version) as study cases. Put forward by Chinese scholar Professor Hu Gengshen, Eco-translatology is based on the philosophy of Eco-holism, Eastern ecological wisdom and Darwinian evolution theory. What makes it distinguished is that Eco-translatology pays more attention to holistic and systemic studies. It also redefines and explains the nature, process, principle, method and the evaluation standard of translation. Hu Gengshen considers translation as "eco-balance", "text transplantation" and "adaptation and selection" which is the essence and foundation of Eco-translatology. In the during translating process, the translator who is in a centered position will realize the multi-dimensional transformation from the source text to the target text through adaptations and selections.Shengsi Pilao is one of the most important novels of Mo Yan. He narrates the protagonist Ximen Nao’s six incarnations that witnesses the development of the history by using colloquial language and multi-perspectives. Even though this novel is full of folk cultures, narrating perspectives and vivid characters, which pose a great challenge to the translator, the translated version won him the first American "Newman Prize for Chinese Literature". This is really a great achievement. However, studies on Shengsi Pilao and its translated version are limited, not to mention systemic studies on the translation process. That’s why to study the translated version from a holistic perspective is of great significance in terms of translation practices and studies. This thesis begins with the main concepts of Eco-translatology and makes a holistic study of the pre-translating, during translating and post-translating process. It analyzes the adaptations and selections of the "translational community" in the pre-translating process and summarizes the strategies and methods that the translator selected in the linguistic, culture and communicative dimensions. The result of the selection and adaptation and the survival of the translated version are evaluated in the post-translating process.In this thesis, the author intends to apply the theory of adaptation and selection of Eco-translatology to make a holistic analysis of Howard Goldblatt’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me out as study case and its translation process. It will also evaluate the translated version comprehensively and objectively under the framework of "Degree of multi-dimensional transformation", reader’s feedback and "doing things with translation". It will not only prove the feasibility of explanatory power of Eco-translatology, but also provide some suggestions for guiding researchers to pay attention to the survival of the target text. Based on the previous studies, this paper further concludes that the translator also selects the author and the source text in the pre-translating process. Moreover, "doing things with translation" can be applied to evaluate the target text. Last but not least, this thesis will also provide a new research perspective for studying the English version of Shengsi Pilao. It summarizes and analyzes the during translating process so as to provide some suggestions for future translation studies and practices.