A Study On The English Version Of Honggaoliangjiazu-Red Sorghum By Howard Goldblatt From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Since 1970 s, the translation studies have come to a cultural field. Within the cultural studies of the translation, the representatives of the manipulation school Andre Lefevere and Susan Bassnett propose cultural turn. They point out that translation is rewriting of the original text. That is to say, in the process of translation, the translators should rewrite the original text if necessary to achieve certain goals. These rewritings can be interpreted as the manipulation in translation. They also point out that the rewritings are always manipulated by three factors: ideology, poetics and patronage. Howard Goldblatt, a famous American sinologist, has long been engaged in the translation of Chinese modern and contemporary literature. In 1993, he translated Mo Yan’s Honggaoliangjiazu into English under the title of Red Sorghum and published it in America, which was a huge success in the western market.Based on Lefevere’s Manipulation theory, this thesis conducts a comparative study between the Chinese novel Honggaoliangjiazu and its English version Red Sorghum. In Goldblatt’s translation, there are lots of rewritings and deletions of the original text. This thesis makes a detailed study on the rewritings in Goldblatt’s translation from the aspects of the dominant social ideology and poetics in the American society as well as the patronage. Through the analysis, the author finds out the reasons for the huge success of Red Sorghum in English countries, summarizes the translation techniques and strategies adopted by Goldblatt and explores the significance of the Manipulation Theory in guiding the translation of Chinese modern and contemporary literature.