A Study On Goldblatt's Translation Of Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out In Light Of Bassnett's “Cultural Translation” Theories

Mo Yan's works have received more and more praise at home and abroad after Mo won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Translation and overseas communication of Chinese literary works get more and more attention, as China is taking its literature to the world. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out was the recipient of the inaugural Newman Prize for Chinese Literature in 2009, which played an important role in Mo's winning of the Nobel Prize. Thus, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out has been one of Mo's works that have attracted much attention from the western world. All the English versions of Mo's novels are translated by the renowned American sinologist and translator Howard Goldblatt. Therefore, his contributions to the appreciation and recognition of Mo's works from abroad should not be overlooked.Language is a part of culture as well as a carrier of culture. The school of cultural translation studies has dramatically expanded the vision of translation studies by discussing the translation process from the perspective of culture. Susan Bassnett is a representative figure of the cultural translation studies. Based on Bassnett's “culture translation” theories, this article analyzes the English translation of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out at both micro and macro levels of “cultural translation”. On the one hand, it studies Goldblatt's features of translation related to cultural factors from the perspective of cultural functional equivalence theory. On the other hand, it explores the influences of culture on the translator during the translation process and the influences of the translation on both the target culture and the Chinese culture under the guidance of manipulation theory and the cultural construction theory.In terms of micro translation strategies and skills of dealing with translation related to cultural factors, Goldblatt tends to use the strategy of domestication and substitute cultural factors in the original text with those in the target culture. But he isn't confined to domestication. Foreignization strategy is also a choice based on the acceptance of TL readers, the purpose of which is to give readers some exposure to Chinese cultural factors. Goldblatt employs varies translation skills to deal with culture factors under different circumstances and to make sure that the English version can be accepted by TL readers. Sometimes he prefers to omit information at different levels to alleviate readers' reading burdens.Analyzing the English version from the broad perspective of culture, this thesis finds that the translator's selection of the source text as well as translation strategies and skills are under the influences of the mainstream ideology, translator's individual ideology, the concept of the role of literature and the literary elements of the target culture, which to some extent can account for the features of Goldblatt's translation. Besides, the English version of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out has potential influences on the target culture, and it has brought about comparatively profound impacts on the source culture. This thesis gains some enlightenment from these findings as well.This thesis conducts an analysis on the English version of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out in light of cultural translation. It is expected that the findings and enlightenment from this thesis can contribute to introducing Chinese literature to the world.