A Study On The English Translation Of Red Sorghum From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Mo Yan is the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.His early representative work Red Sorghum is popular with domestic readers because of its intricate narrative techniques,magical color and critical style.Howard Goldblatt,a Sinologist and translator,translated this work into English in 1993 and published it in the United States,which aroused a strong response from target readers.This translation is unique in accuracy,literariness and artistry,and successfully breaks the downturn of Chinese literary works' going-out.Under the guidance of reception aesthetics theory,this thesis aims to explore how translator Goldblatt exerts his subjectivity and mobilizes the active participation of target language readers so as to create the high-quality and high-level translation.The thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is an introduction to the author Mo Yan,the translator Goldblatt and the original work and the translated version of Red Sorghum,including the current research status,research method,research purposes and significance.The second chapter mainly analyzes Goldblatt's full consideration of the expectations of target readers in terms of culture,language and aesthetics,so that the translation is more suitable for the target language culture.In terms of cultural subtext,he uses textual interpolation to deal with culture-loaded words,retaining the uniqueness of exotic cultures;in terms of language code,in order to meet the reading expectations of target readers,get rid of the shackles of ideology and pursue the narrative compactness,he has deleted,added and revised the relevant plots to promote the dissemination of the translation in the target culture.According to the differences in the themes,plots and turns of English and Chinese paragraphs,he has split and merged some paragraphs to make them more in line with the English literary tradition.In terms of appreciation habits,in order to satisfy the pleasant appreciation experience of target readers,he has omitted the phenomenon of cultural conflict and filled the cognitive gap caused by cultural differences between China and the West.The third chapter discusses that Goldblatt caters to the aesthetic needs of target readers in transmitting source language culture and reproducing the aesthetic sense of the original text,providing them with defamiliarized aesthetic experience.In terms of the transmission of foreignness,he uses a flexible translation method for the names of various characters in the novel.Name translation plays an important role in revealing the characters' personality,interpreting the characters' behavior and revealing the fate of the characters,thus enabling target readers to have a deeper understanding of the characters' images.As for the translation of idioms,on the one hand,he retains the cultural images of Chinese idioms,conveys the culture of the source language,and arouses the novelty of target readers.On the other hand,he uses English rhetoric to make target readers feel the splendor of Chinese idioms.In terms of the reproduction of aesthetics,he restores the form beauty of the poetic language and the rhyme beauty of the lyrics in the original works in his translation,thus enhancing the aesthetic sense of the translation.The fourth chapter analyzes the participation and involvement of Goldblatt's horizon of expectation in the generation of the translated version from the perspective of the duality of the translator's subjectivity.As a reader,his dual cultural identity,translation career and the bilateral relationship of translator-author provide a guarantee for his better acceptance and interpretation of the original work;as a rewriter,he attaches great importance to the readability of the translated version and the importance of readers' consciousness.It is under the guidance of this translation concept that he can create the translated version that is accepted and recognized by target readers.The fifth chapter is the conclusion.By analyzing the original work and the translated work,it can be concluded that the translator Goldblatt,with his bilingual and bicultural competence and excellent translation skills,has given full consideration to the needs of target readers and created a translation equivalent to the original work.