A Study On Translation Of Foregrounded Language In Mo Yan’s Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out From Translator’s Subjectivity

Foregrounded language is a prominent feature of literary language. The foregrounded language serves as an important symbol for distinguishing literary language and non-literary language. As a significant concept in stylistics, foregrounded language is mainly studied from stylistic analysis. And researches concerning foregrounded language and translation are increasing. However, few of researches have been carried out on the translation of foregrounded language from the angle of translator’s subjectivity. How can the target text effectively deliver the contents of the source text and at the same time retain its original artistic characteristics as much as possible and render target readers the same reading experience as that of source readers. The sufficient exertion of translator’s subjectivity is the answer to the question.This thesis will focus on the application of foregrounded language in Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Through analyzing the unique expressive effect engendered by foregrounded language and studying Mo Yan’s linguistic style and features, this thesis will further discuss the impacts made by foregrounded language on the presentation of artistic feature and the achievement of aesthetic value. Through detailed contrastive analysis between Mo Yan’s source text and Howard Goldblatt’s English version, this thesis will interpret the translator’s choice of translation strategies from translator’s subjectivity, and explore the relationship between demonstrating translator’s subjectivity and reproducing foregrounding effect. In the conclusion part, this thesis will summarize Goldblatt’s translation strategies and methods in translating foregrounded language. And the gain and loss will be weighed so as to provide implications and references for other translators to better translate foregrounded language in literary works.This thesis is divided into the following five chapters:Chapter One introduces the purpose of research, Mo Yan and his Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, and previous researches on Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s works. Chapter Two expounds the notion of translator’s subjectivity and the foregrounding theory. C hapter Three focuses on the connotation and function of foregrounded language as well as the application of it in Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. Chapter Four analyzes Howard Goldblatt’s choice of translation strate gy under the influence of translator’s limited subjectivity. C hapter Five concludes the correlation between the embodiment of translator ’s subjectivity and the reproduction of foregrounded language.