Translator’s Adaptation And Selection: A Cultural Dimensional Interpretation On Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out

Mo Yan is one of the most prominent contemporary C hinese novelists known to the west and his English translator Howard Goldblatt plays an indispensable role in introducing Mo’s works to the western readership. In this thesis, the author studies Mo’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out translated by Howard Goldblatt from the perspective of Hu Gengshen’s Eco-translatology theory.Chinese Professor Hu Gengshen’s idea of Translation as Adaptation and Selection on the basis of Darwinian’s principle of natural selection and theory of evolution is a comprehensive study about the interact ion of translator and the translational eco-environment. It studies the comprehensive characteristic of translational eco-environment and describes the nature, process, criteria principles and methods of translation from the perspective of Eco-translatology.This thesis studies Howard Goldblatt’s translating Life and death Are Wearing Me Out from the perspective of translator’s adaptation and selection. Furthermore, the author analyzes the cultural element in this novel and from the cultural dimensio n of the Three Dimensional Transformations and finds out that Howard’s translation is not only the process of adaptation and selection to the eco-environment, also the process of balancing the whole translational eco-environment including the author, the translator, target readers, c lients, etc..Based on the theory of Eco-translatology, the thesis makes a qualitative research on the application of the theory of translator’s adaptation and selection to the analysis of Howard Goldblatt’s translation activity. The author will firstly introduce the Eco-translatology theory and the version of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out translated by Howard Goldblatt; then the author will combine them with cultural dimensional transformation applied to translate cultural e lement in the novel; finally, focusing on the great influence of Goldblatt’s translations of Mo’s works, the author will appreciate its great significance of exporting C hinese Culture and accordingly draw a conclusion.This thesis discusses the English translation of the novel Sheng Si Pi Lao from a new perspective, which can not only explore Goldblatt’s translation thoughts, strengthen its achievements, also help to prove the guidance and flexibility of the Eco-translatology theory to translation activities.