A Study On Goldblatt's Cultural Capital In His Translation Of Red Sorghum

Howard Goldblatt is a distinguished American sinologist and translator on Chinese literature.In 1993,Red Sorghum,the early representative work of contemporary Chinese writer Mo Yan,was translated into English by him and then published in America.In the next twenty years,Red Sorghum has gained quantities of praise and has been reprinted constantly.On the contrary,the acceptance situation of other contemporary Chinese literatures in overseas countries is unsatisfying as most of their translated versions have failed to obtain wide acceptance and recognition from foreign readers.Therefore,it is not only indispensible to study the success factors of Goldblatt in his translation and reception of Red Sorghum,but also has some referential value for Chinese literature going out.Since 1990 s,an increasing number of sociology theories have been applied in translation studies and thus appears tendency of sociological turn in translation studies.Among all sociologies applied in translation studies,the theory put forward by Pierre Bourdieu,a French sociologist,is frequently adopted by translation scholars in the analysis of revealing social and cultural essence of translation activities.Bourdieu argues that capital does not merely refer to the factors of production and social relations in the field of economics,but also a tool that guides social practice of agents.In the space field,agents have to compete according to the amount of capital they owned and cultural capital is one of core components of capital.Cultural capital,which is also a form of power capital,has a diversified content which contains language skills,general cultural awareness,aesthetic preferences and educational diplomas.Cultural capital is the starting point for the agents in the field of literature translation which has close connection and interaction with translators' social trajectory,motivation,selection and strategies of translation.At the macro level,cultural capital is determinant of translators' selection on source text as well as reception strategies.At micro level,it is the decisive factor of their choices on translation strategies and styles.Therefore,based on cultural capital theory,this thesis makes an in-depth analysis on Goldblatt,the English translator of Red Sorghum,so as to figure out following questions:(1)How does Goldblatt's cultural capital form and accumulate?(2)How does Goldblatt's cultural capital function in the reception and translation process of Red Sorghum?According to the research,the author draws the conclusions as follows: First,Goldblatt's cultural capital is composed of his educational background,research and translation experience on Chinese literature,awards,excellent bilingual ability and good relation with the author.Then,affected by the composition of his cultural capital,on one hand,Red Sorghum has conformed to the rules of Chinese and English literary fields in the 1980 s and 1990 s.On the other hand,Goldblatt has obtained influence and found his voice in English literature field.Hence,he received assistance from National Endowment for the translation project of Red Sorghum and was endorsed by the Viking Penguin Press.In a word,it is the unique composition of Goldblatt's cultural capital that formed his unique translation views and strategies,his cognition and attitude towards the original text and thus eventually formed his distinct translation style of Red Sorghum.