改写理论背景下《生死场》英译本分析

The author of this thesis made an analysis of The Field of Life and Death translated byHoward Goldblatt from the perspective of rewriting theory. Through the comparison of thesource text and target text, the author intends to research how these three factors, namely,ideology, poetics and patronage manipulate the translation. A large number of previoustranslation studies on Chinese literature focuses on the research and analysis of the particulartranslation strategies in the field of linguistics. These researches just superficiallyconcentrate on the transition between texts and linguistics, which ignores the culturalbackground and social context in researching translation of Chinese literature. This thesistries to bridge the gaps and eventually summarizes some effective ways for the translation ofexcellent Chinese literature. When translating the Chinese literature, Howard Goldblatt paysmuch attention toward target reader’s needs and acceptability, from not only the linguisticperspective but also the cultural background. Howard Goldblatt has made lots of adjustmentsand rewriting of source text in order to meet western readers’ demand. As the result, HowardGoldblatt’s translated version is favorably accepted by the target readers in the westernworld.Here are the major findings: in the macro-level, firstly, The Field of Life and Deathpossesses elements that meet its reader’s desire to appreciate Chinese traditional culture andrural life. The novel is set in a small village of Northeast China, a village with primitiveecology during the period of Anti-Japanese war. The rural life, complicated relationshipamong villagers during that special period, China’s traditional routine and customs of therural villagers meet western’s curiosity. Secondly, the novel is set in the special period ofAnti-Japanese War period, during which people of Northeast China united to resist theaggression of Japanese enemies. Westerners have always been interested in the relationshipbetween China and Japan. It is another reason why Howard Goldblatt selected this novel totranslate. Finally, the related theme of feminism can also attract the western reader’s interests.In the novel, the Hisao Hung described female characters’ tragic lives in that period whicharose people’s deep reflection about women’s position and independence. This kind ofliterature is consistent with the mainstream literature of United States in 1970.

Chapter One Introduction

It is beyond dispute that our Chinese culture plays a leading role in the vicissitude ofthe history. However, it has gradually fallen behind in modern times. After the Opium War,Chinese culture is always in a state of weakness, conservation and being encroached bywestern culture.From Self-Strengthening Movement, Hundred Days Reform, The Revolution of 1911and May Fourth Movement, all these movements are brought in by our compatriots whostudies abroad or introduced by the foreigners,Marxism is also introduced by the outbreak ofOctober Revolution of Russia. We have devoted ourselves to learn from the western cultureover the last century and have less opportunity and capability to propagate our Chineseculture. If we are overwhelmed by the western culture and have less capability todisseminate our culture, western culture is bound to affect our country, our own culture willlose its own features in the future.Since the founding of People’s Republic of China, especially since the reform andopening up, our culture undergoes a qualitative change from closing to opening up, frompassive to active, from introducing culture of the western countries to promoting culture togo out. The fundamental reason is that after more than 40 years of reform and opening up,China’s economic strength and overall national strength have greatly enhanced. We begin tobe conscious and confident about Chinese culture.The Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth Central Committee puts forward the goalof building a strong social and cultural country, which will surely leads further culturalawakening and cultural self-confidence to our nation and people, especially intellectuals, sothat we can be more comprehensive and accurate to grasp the trend of world culturaldevelopment and be more active to participate in the globalization of culture. GeneralSecretary Xi Jinping points out that literary and artistic workers should propagate Chinesestories, disseminate Chinese voices, elucidate Chinese spirit and display Chinese features tothe world. After that a series of measures are adopted by our government and relevantdepartments to the implement of the policy of “Chinese Cultures Going Abroad”. Ourgovernment has set up Confucius Institute, held Chinese New Year and “Chinese bridge”speech contest in foreign countries . Last but not least, we carry out the plan to translateChinese Classic into foreign languages. According to National Copyright Administration ofPeople’s Republic of China in the year of 2018, the number of foreign works imported toChina is18.5421, however, the only 9088 translated Chinese works are exported abroad. It isobvious that there’s still huge room for the out-going of the translated Chinese literature.Scholar working for Chinese literary translation makes outstanding contribution to the world,but most of the scholars are good at translating foreign works into Chinese, which puts thebottleneck of Chinese culture of going abroad.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Introduction to Hsiao Hung and The Field of Life and Death

She started her primary school with her grandfather’s support in 1920. Seven years later,she left hometown to study in a middle school in Harbin. During this period she was exposedto the progressive ideas and Chinese and foreign literature, especially the influence of Luxun,Maodun and American writer Sinclair who inspired her in literature. Before long she lost theonly one whom she beloved, her grandfather passed away. Then her father set a marriage forherand forced her to return home.In the summer, the 19 years old Zhang Naiying ran away from his family in protestagainst his father's arranged marriage, she fled to Harbin, later she went to Beijing and led avagrant life. In 1932, the deceived Zhang Naiying was returned Harbin and owned the hotela large sum of money so that the hotel threatened to sell her to the brothel. Under thiscondition, thehelpless Zhang Naiying sought help for the local newspaper office by letters.Xiao Jun, a young newspaper editor, was full of sympathy for Zhang Naiying and helped herescape from the hotel on a stormy night. From then on, Zhang Naiying got acquainted withXiaoJun, who had a great influence on her. The two people began a life of poverty but theylive together. This period was the most memorable time of Zhang Naiying.Besides, the narrative style of the novel is also quite special. It has no main protagonistor plot line and the whole novel is comprised of loosely connected scenes of village life. Thelanguage of the novel is plain, natural and poetic. The special narrative style and thelanguage style make the novel seem like a prose. Although it has some colloquialexpressions and northeastern dialects, it still reads quite elegant on the whole. In addition,various figures of various rhetorical techniques are employed in the novel, which make thenarration vivid and expressive. In fact, the theme of the novel is in discussion, Hsiao Hungdoes not show exactly and directly what she tries to express. This leads to differentinterpretations of the novel. Some scholars think it is about the gradual wake-up of thenortheastern Chinese peasants’ national consciousness after the Japanese invasion of China.Some scholars regard it as a feminist novel, for a lot of words are used to describe females’pain and suffering imposed by males. In addition, most readers and scholars consider it as aphilosophical work with insightful thoughts on life and death. Besides these opinions, thereare still other views on this novel.

2.2 Introduction to Howard Goldblatt and Studies on His Translations

Howard Goldblatt is one of the most distinguished sinologists whose Chinese name isGe Haowen and is honored as the “chief Chinese literature translator in the English-speakingcountry”. His experiences in translation and translation philosophy are worthy ofcomprehensive study. Born in 1939, he joined army when he was young and later he wassent to Taiwan to be an officer in the 1960s. He made full of this period to learn Chineselanguage and it was in that period that he found his genius in studying Chinese language.After retiring from the army, he matriculated at San Francisco State College to study Chinese.After graduating from San Francisco State College, he was enrolled in Indiana University tofurther study his doctor’s degree in Chinese literature. During his subsequent 30 years, heuntiringly devoted himself to teaching, translation and the propaganda of Chinese literaturetoward western world. What’s more, he was the chief editor of Modern Chinese Literature aswell as a professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at theUniversity of Notre Dame of United States of America. Unarguably, as the most prolific andinfluential American translator of Chinese Literature, Howard Goldblatt has translated morethan 40 novels, several anthologies and many essays and articles which have made him oneof the most well-known translators of our time. The collection includes Goldblatt’s personalpapers (letters, drafts, notes, and other important papers) and over 6,000 volumes of hispersonal library.

Chapter Three Theoretical Framework .......................................................12

3.1 Lefevere and His Rewriting Theory ..............................................................12

3.2 Three Major Factors of Rewriting Theory.....................................................13

Chapter Four Analysis of Rewriting in The Field of Life and Death............17

4.1 Analysis from the Perspective of Ideology....................................................17
4.2 Analysis from the Perspective of Poetics.........................................................29
4.3 Analysis from the Perspective of Patronage......................................................41
Chapter Five Conclusion........................................................................................44

5.1 Major findings and limitations...........................................................................44

5.2 Implications on Going Abroad of Chinese literature.........................................46

Chapter Four Analysis of Rewriting in The Field of Life and

Death

4.1.1 The Selection of Source Text from Perspective of Ideology

Every social stage possesses it own dominant ideology, core value system. Besides, thedominant ideology consists of mainstream political ideology and literary ideology. Thedominant ideology signifies the will of power, generally speaking, the translators follow thiswill. “Every society possesses it ideological system which has clear ideological boundariesand every mindful society member has knowledge of where the line is. Consequently, theiractivity is mainly limited within this boundary. You can approach it, however, you cannotcross the boundary. These translators should obey it for it is the rule in any society. Theliterary ideology and political ideology play a leading role in selecting the source text to betranslated. In translation, source texts conforming to the dominant ideology enjoy the greaterpossibility to be translated. For example, in specific time, European and American countriestend to select the Arabic literature depending on their own “image” about Arab. Some Arabicliterature characterizing pornography, barbarism, terrorism, theft were often translated.The period from the Opium War to the Republic of China was the third translationclimax in Chinese history, which originated in the Westernization Movement in the middleof the 19th century. During this period, a total of 468 Western works on natural science andtechnology were translated and published. On the one hand, these works served asintroductions to western science and technology, on the other hand, it promoted China’sprogress in scientific research and production practice. At the beginning of this translationclimax, technical works were translated, the purpose of this translation was to“master thewestern technique to control the barbarians.”In the later period, the translation of westernphilosophical and humanistic works was the main aim of enriching the country andstrengthening the armed forces. Similarly, the foreign literary works concerning on Marxistswere translated in the early period of People's Republic of China due to the specific culturaland specific background. In the process of translation, these translators mainly focused onthe advanced thoughts, so they chose the source texts characterized progressive ideas.During the period of Anti-Japanese war, a number of translators dedicated to nationalsalvation movement, the translation material focused on anti-aggression and anti-fascist weretranslated. National salvation was the theme of that era. The period of Anti-Japanese Warwas also the peak of the translation of Marxism-Leninism. From July1937 to July 1949,more than 192 books related to Lenin, Marx were translated according to the statistics fromnational library. The practical knowledge about wartime accounted for the absoluteadvantage of the number of translated books. From written above, it is obvious that ideologyplays a significant role in the whole process of translation, especially in the selection ofsource text.

4.2 Analysis from the Perspective of Poetics

The success of The Field of Life and Death is to large extend ascribed its theme whichis feminism. Through vivid description of the female characters’ strategic lives, the authorwant to draw people’s attention about women’s inferiority and inequality. The Englishversion The Field of Life and Death have attracted the western world’s attention after itspublication because it is consistent with the literary mainstream of feminism in Americanliterature in 1970s.In the chapter three, the author mentioned that poetics consists of “ an inventory ofliterary device, motifs, prototypical characters, genres, and situations among which “motif”is a key factor of poetics. According to the literary-device.com, motif is any element, subject,idea or concept that is constantly present through the entire body of literature. Motifs arevery noticeable and play a significant role in defining the nature of the story, the course ofevents and the very fabric of the literary piece. And the theme of The Field of life and Deathis mainly embodied by its feminism characteristics.After the 1970s, with the deepening of the feminist movement and the improvement ofwomen's status, more and more intellectual women entered the literary world. They insistedon drawing materials from women’s daily life, and describe women’s experiences in modernsociety, especially women's discrimination and their struggle. With the efforts of thesewomen writers, new literature emerged, which is based on feminism and closely related tocontemporary social life.This kind of literature has become a mainstream literary theme inthe 1970s of USA. Howard translated The Field of Life and Death in the 1970s, oncepublished, it has draw the western world’s attention and achieved popularity in the westernmarket. The reason why it can succeed in the American market lies in that the motifconforms to the literary mainstream at that time. The oppressed female groups in the feudalpatriarchal society lived in a world without love, no dignity,no freedom, and always beingtortured by fertility. In The Field of Life and Death, the tragedy of life, the tragedy of thetimes, and the tragedy of women are all vividly displayed.

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[6] Goldblatt , H 1979. The Field of Life and Death and Tales of Hulan River: two Novels byHsiao Hung [M]. Bloomington: Indiana University. Press. .

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