| Wo De Di Wang Sheng Ya is written by a famous Chinese contemporary writer Su Tong, telling a story about how Duanbai, the emperor in the novel, has gained and lost the throne, symbolizing his deprivation and regaining of humanity. My Life as Emperor is the English version of this novel. Since it was finished by Howard Goldblatt and published in America in 2005, it has enjoyed great popularity among the target readers and received positive comments from American mainstream media, like The New Yorker. Palace culture is a very important component in this novel and there are a lot of descriptions about the palace culture, such as imperial titles, emperor’s belongings and so on, which is one of the reasons why this thesis studies the palace culture translations.In 1990 s, André·Lefevere put forward his rewriting theory, which has expanded the research sphere of translation and promoted the development of translation study. Rewriting theory is helpful to explain in which way the translator has been influenced by ideology and poetics in the translation of palace culture.Because palace culture is a significant part in this novel, this thesis aims to figure out the rewritings about palace culture in target text and in which way Goldblatt is motivated to adapt those variations. From the perspective of rewriting theory, the author uses the qualitative analysis method through intensive reading of Wo De Di Wang Sheng Ya and its English version My Life as Emperor, finding that firstly, Howard Goldblatt’s selection of Wo De Di Wang Sheng Ya is closely related to the main ideology, poetics in America and his personal ideology. Under the influence of those factors, there are some signs of rewriting in Glodblatt’s rendering about palace culture, including the translation of imperial belongings and imperial titles, etc. in order to make his translation cater to the target readers’ reading habit and expectation. Secondly, for the sake of keeping the style of the original, the translator obeys the principle of faithfulness and in order to make the translated text easily readable and understandable to the target readers he follows the principle of increasing readability and the principle of simplification.It is hoped to extend the research perspective of My Life as Emperor and provide reference to the palace culture translations of similar novels through the intensive reading and analysis of the palace culture translations in the light of rewriting theory. |
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