Translation Of Deviated Rhetoric In Mo Yan’s Works

Mo Yan’s works have attracted great attention of scholars both at home andabroad due to the weird and unique language, absurd but profound images, etc. SinceMo Yan was awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature, he has aroused a trend of studyon his works. However, among all studies on Mo Yan and his works, most are carriedout from the perspective of literature, those on the translation of his works arerelatively small in number and never have there been any study on the translation ofdeviated rhetoric in his works. Therefore, this dissertation aims to study theapplication and translation of deviated rhetoric in Mo Yan’s works to make up for theacademic blank in this area.Deviated rhetoric, as a kind of rhetoric devices has not attracted much attention,researches on it are relatively small in number and studies on the translation of it aremuch less. Flexible in language and heavy-loaded in culture of rhetorical devices, thetranslation of them has always been a hard nut and a significant research topic, so hasbeen the translation of deviated rhetoric. Therefore, the in-depth research on deviatedrhetoric and its translation is not only necessary, but is of profound significance.Up until now, various translation theories have been applied into researches onthe translation of rhetoric devices. However, compared with previous translationtheories, the Functional Equivalence theory put forward by American famoustranslation theorist, Nida, Eugene A. shifts focus in translation from paying attentionto language form to the content and reader response, and stresses the equivalence incommunicative effect instead of equivalence in form. This translation thought and principle should be of practical guidance for the translation of deviated rhetoric,which is flexible in form and is greatly differentiated with English. Therefore, thisdissertation aims to cite examples from one of his representative works, Life andDeath Are Wearing Me Out, and the translation version by American famoustranslator Howard Goldblatt as the case study. Through the method of qualitativeanalysis, the author chooses certain original examples in Life and Death Are WearingMe Out and the translation version, and gives detailed analysis on the translation ofdeviated rhetoric from four aspects, that is, the vocabulary level, the semantic level,the level of grammar and other aspects so as to find out how equivalence is achievedin these four aspects and what translation strategies are taken.Through detailed analysis of examples it can be found out that despite the greatdifferentiation between Chinese and English, under the guidance of FunctionalEquivalence theory and taking corresponding translation strategies and methods, thegoal of functional equivalence and ideal communicative effects can be achieved in thetranslation of deviated rhetoric.