A Study Of The English Version Of Hulanhe Zhuan From Postcolonial Translation Perspective

Since the “cultural turn” in translation studies, many macroscopic factors including culture have been an important part of translation studies. As a result, postcolonial translation theory develops rapidly and gradually becomes a brand new research vision. In the postcolonial translation theory, power differential is seen as a primary factor that influences translation practice and attracts great attention. Unequal status between languages and power differential between cultures enables the postcolonial translation theorists to study cultural communication in the translation activities from different cultural standpoints. Postcolonial translation theory considers the relationship between the source language and the target language as unequal and that translation activity is greatly influenced and manipulated by the imbalanced relation between the hegemonic culture and the dominated culture. Meanwhile, in the postcolonial context, hybridity is the inevitable product resulted from culture and language communication. The exotic flavor, to some extent, can be retained by means of hybridity, which will facilitate the communication between theses two languages and resist the cultural hegemony so as to demonstrate the cultural heterogeneities.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis mainly consists of three chapters. Chapter One reviews the previous studies of Nie-Zi and its English translation of Crystal Boys both abroad and at home from different viewpoints. Chapter Two is the theoretical framework, firstly making a brief overview of postcolonial theory and postcolonial translation theory, and then dwelling on the two key concepts of postcolonial translation theory, namely power differential and hybridity. Besides, some specific translation approaches related to the concepts are summarized. Chapter Three is the main body and with the help of Eugene Nida’s five cultural categories, the present author adopts the postcolonial translation theory as the research tool to dissect the English translation of Crystal Boys. Also, he attempts to find out the translation thought and translation strategies embodied at different cultural levels in the translation.Having studied the English translation Crystal Boys from the postcolonial perspective, the thesis finds out that translator’s choices of translation approaches, translation purposes and specific context are closely connected. Domestication and foreignization are not contradictory but both constitute a dialectical unity. On one hand, as a translator from the strong culture, Goldblatt, more or less, conforms to his hegemonic consciousness. He tends to employ domestication strategy to eliminate the strangeness or foreignness of the Chinese culture and deliberately ignore the specific features of the Chinese culture. On the other hand, owing to the great differences between the Chinese language and the English language, hybridity is inevitably manifested in the English version. Meanwhile, on account of Goldblatt’s special relationship with China and the Chinese culture, he prefers introducing the Chinese culture to the western audience. Moreover, he mainly adopts foreignization to subvert the hegemony and have the Chinese culture propagated and appreciated. Therefore, Goldblatt, in a sense, absorbs the Chinese and western cultures as well as alienates them.