| Literary translation, especially fictional translation is one important component in cultural communication between China and the West. Every year, millions of western literary works and their Chinese versions are introduced to China, but the number of Chinese counterpart is relatively small. And most of the Chinese literature output is ancient classical works. The exchange in literature seems to have the tendency to make Chinese literature marginalized, and westerners lack suitable opportunities to know the development of present Chinese literature.In order to change the situation, efforts are badly in need to translate and introduce more valuable Chinese contemporary works to foreign cultures.As the winner of2012Nobel Prize in Literature, Mo Yan makes great contributions strengthen the influence of Chinese contemporary literature in the world. When reading his novels, people usually amaze at his superb narrative skills in novel writing. Besides Mo Yan’s own talent, his success could not have been realized without the efforts of his English translator Howard Goldblatt, who has a good understanding of Mo Yan’s thoughts and narrative skills. Narration is one important writing technique, and narratology is a narrative theory created under the influence of structuralism in the1960s. It is an influential theory in novel critics. Nowadays, some scholars have already noticed the fitness of narratology to fictional translation study and are attempting to conduct researches.Under such a background, the thesis attempts to explore Goldblatt’s English version of Mo Yan’s important novel Shengsi pilao from the perspective of narratology. Shengsi pilao tells an interesting story of landlord Ximen Nao living through half a century from1950to2000as a human, donkey, ox, pig, dog and monkey. Analysis of the English version is carefully conducted with sufficient examples from the aspects of narrative point of view, narrative discourse and structure of narrative plot. After that, merits and demerits of Goldblatt’s translation are summarized with possible reasons like cultural and language differences, reader’s reception and translator’s personal preference. After a series of analysis, the thesis finds out narratological enlightenment to fictional translation: first, the relationship between western narratology and Chinese narratology should be noticed; second, in Chinese to English fictional translation, narrative point of view should be reproduced, narrative discourse domesticated and structure of narrative plot reorganized; third, translators should be required to have profound understanding of western and Chinese narratology, excellent guiding and explanation abilities, as well as correct prediction of reader’s reception.The thesis is an efficient evidence to prove the appropriateness of narratology in fictional translation study. It provides valuable suggestions for translators in Chinese-English translation, and to some extent promotes the dissemination of Chinese literature in western cultures. |
