A Study On English Translation Of Tales Of Hulan River By Howard Goldblatt From The Persepctive Of Transaltion Variation Theory

More and more researches have been made on Hulanhe Zhuan in China since the translation and study on Hsiao Hung's works by the American famous sinologist Howard Goldblatt.Hsiao Hung is Goldblatt's favorite Chinese feminine writer and his translation of Hulanhe Zhuan made the charm of the novel gradually win the attention from Chinese scholars.It is not a traditional novel,without specific theme,plot and characters,and featured by its prose style in structure,and it is the author's intense inner feelings that serve as the thread of the whole work.Hsiao Hung depicted the local customs and practices in Northeast China,the bad qualities in Chinese citizens under the shackle of the feudal system as well as their desolate life with unique narrative methods,writing style and language characteristics,and expressed her thinking on the philosophical meaning of life under the background of anti-Japanese war.This thesis tries to analyze Tales of Hulan River by Goldblatt from the perspective of translation variation theory put forward by Professor Huang Zhonglian.That is to analyze the embodiment and effect of the theory in the English translation of the novel,hoping that this research could give enlightenment to scholars who will translate Chinese literature works and spread Chinese culture overseas later on,and reinforce the practical value of this translation theory.The first chapter is literature review,giving a general review over former researches on Hulanhe Zhuan as well as translation variation theory.The second chapter introduces the translation variation theory,including its emergence,theoretical basis,elements,mechanism as well as seven translation variation methods.The third chapter gives a detailed analysis of the embodiment of addition,deletion,edition,combination and adaption in Goldblatt's English translation of Hulanhe Zhuan as well as their corresponding effects,tells what should be paid attention to in the English translation of Hulanhe Zhuan and further elaborates on the practical meaning of translation variation theory.Tales of Hulan River was one of Goldblatt's early translation of Chinese works.He somewhat changed the paragraph structure,language style and some characteristic folklore and traditional culture expressions,affecting the complete presentation of the theme and narrative characteristics of the original work.However,the translation possesses a fluent and natural language style as well as a more compact structure,and has conveyed the emotion of the original work,therefore conforms to target readers' language habits,thinking and cognitive mode,and enjoys a pretty high acceptability among target readers.After the study,conclusion was drawn the translation variation theory adopted in the translation of literary works can improve the acceptability of the translated work among the target readers in a certain degree.However,the better way of the English translation of Hulanhe Zhuan and other Chinese literature works as well as the feasibility of the theory in the English translation of Chinese literature works waits to be verified through more researches on its practical value,so as to boost the international communication of Chinese literature and culture.