Howard Goldblatt's Translation Strategies Of Culture-loaded Terms In Mo Yan's Novels From The Perspective Of Eco-translatology

Mo Yan,the winner of Nobel Prize in Literature,has attracted the attention of translators both at home and abroad.And Howard Goldblatt,a preeminent Chinese literary translator,plays a leading role in introducing Mo Yan's works to the western world.Most of present studies on Goldblatt's translation of Mo's novels deal with a single translated version or are concerned with two works comparatively rather than address the possible changes of the translator's translation strategies of culture-loaded terms.Considering Goldblatt's translation strategies and philosophies underwent constant renewal and change during the time span of more than 20 years,the study in this aspect is both necessary and significant in that it sheds new light on the translator's dynamic attitude and approach in handling culture-loaded expressions.Eco-translatology is concerned with translators' adaption to the ecological environment of the source text,and selective productions of the translated versions from the linguistic,cultural and communicative dimension.From this perspective,Goldblatt's translation on Mo Yan's novels is also a process of constant adaptation and selection.This study aims to investigate Goldblatt's translation strategies of culture-loaded terms from the perspective of eco-translatology.The translated works of Goldblatt in three different phases,Red Sorghum,The Republic of Wine and Frog,are chosen as subjects of study.Based on the main concepts of eco-translatology proposed by Hu Gengshen,namely,eco-translational environment,adaptive selection in translation and “three-dimensional transformation”,three research questions under this theoretical framework are explored: 1).What are Goldblatt's major translationstrategies and methods in translating culture-loaded terms in three Mo Yan's novels?2).Are there any changes for Goldblatt's translation strategies in the past two decades based on three English versions? And,how do these changes reflect the translator's adaptation to translational eco-environment? 3).What are the potential reasons of translation strategies applied by Goldblatt from the perspective of eco-translatology?The study,first and foremost,selects a certain number of culture-loaded terms in three novels as the overall research object,and these terms are divided into five categories according to Nida's classification of culture.Some representative culture-loaded terms are used as typical research samples.Qualitative descriptions and quantitative analysis are given,in order to conduct statistics and analysis of the translation strategies of the three English translations.From these studies,it is discovered that: a).foreignization is always the major translation strategy in three novels;moreover,literal translation is a primary translation method in each book as well,while the level of foreignization is becoming increasingly higher in the latter two;b).as for the same culture-loaded terms,the translator has made some changes of approach in translation whether they occur in the same book or in different books;c).Goldblatt takes foreignization as the main translation strategy.The purpose of this practice is proposed,to preserve the original cultural element and rhetorical features to the fullest possible extent,which enables western readers to have a better taste of Chinese culture.It is also found that the above changes of translator's translation strategies,as viewed from the perspective of eco-translatology,are not only subject to the context of the source text itself,but related to some other factors like target readers,cultural differences,Mo Yan's increasing reputation,publishing company and so forth.In the end,implications are given with reference to approaches that may be considered for the translation of the different works by the same author at different periods of time.The author also points out limitations of research and gives suggestions for further research.