A Study Of Variation In Howard Goldblatt's Translation Of Gan Xiao Liu Ji From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Gan Xiao Liu Ji of Yang Jiang is a narrative prose of nearly two-year's life in cadre school.The name of the book imitates Shen Fu's Fu Sheng Liu Ji(????)in Qing dynasty.It is a reflection of intellectuals'labor life in the cadre school during the great cultural revolution by recording basic life,comradeship,love between the couple,etc.In a short time after its publication,there appear versions of different language,three of which are English versions respectively by Geremie R.Barme's,Howard Goldblattt's and Zhang Chu's.Since Howard Goldblatt has successfully rendered a number of Chinese literary works,so he is regarded as the most recognized translator of Chinese literature at present.Consequently,his version is of strong readability,and study on it is of great representativeness and guiding value.However,researches on its English versions are rare.Some take a comparison of the three translations from stylistic theory,or study the translation from Toury's norm theory,or analyze explicitation in literary translation through the translation.Whereas,research on Howard's version from manipulation theory remains virgin.Lefevere considers that translation is no longer equivalence between the source language and target language.Other than linguistic element,other elements like cultural,political,economic elements should be involved.The putting forward of the theory realized the transition from text-focused to culture-focused and pointed out that the translation process can be manipulated by ideology,patronage and poetics.It can better explain the various variations in Howard's rendition of Gan Xiao Liu Ji and the reason for its good acceptability and readability.As a result,the present paper attempts to analyze the selection of Gan Xiao Liu Ji and variation in it as well as the corresponding translation strategy from the four perspectives: ideology,patronage,poetics,and the interactions between the three.And variation includes types like alteration,omission,specification,rearrangement of paragraphs,generalization,and its function will be exhaustively analyzed.Manipulation theory has wide applicability,and practical guiding function for the translation of Chinese literary works.By way of case study and qualitative analysis,the thesis figures out three findings.Firstly,in the process of case study and text analysis,it can be found that a principle runs through the whole translation process.That is the emphasis on target readers' acceptability and translated text's readability.Secondly,if a translated work aims to get success and to earn a wide range of readers which means a realization of the value of translation,it has to reach a certain extent of compromise in the current poetics,patronage,and ideology.Lastly,the research provides practical reference value for picking an appropriate translator for successful“export” of Chinese literary works into English-speaking countries.Besides,when it comes to the innovative point of the thesis,,the most outstanding feature is its research angle.One is that research on Howard's version from systematic theory is rare,and none of them involves manipulative perspective and translation strategies in variations.Other from the findings and innovations,there are also deficiencies in the thesis.One is that the theory is to some extent incomplete in which the distinction for the three manipulative factors is not clear enough and has some overlaps resulting in a partial overlap in the analysis;another is that source for gathering the information is limited so that data collection in the thesis is not objective enough;the third deficiency is that cases for analysis are not enough and some examples in case study are not typical enough.In conclusion,the research of the thesis proves that,in order to strengthen the readability of a translation,expression habits in target language and acceptability of target readers,which after all reflected in the three factors of manipulation,should be taken as a base to adjust translation strategy.Accordingly,it proves the applicability and practicability of manipulation theory for analyzing variation in literary translation.