A Case Study Of Howard Goldblatt’s Wolf Totem Under J. House’s Translation Quality Assessment Model

Chinese literature has been getting more attention from the global literature as Mo Yan’s winning of Nobel Prize and Liu Cixin’s victory in Hugo Awards. Many critics credit their breakthroughs to the successful translations of the original versions. However, for the definition of successful translation, one thousand people would have one thousand interpretations. It would be the best to have a model for us to obtain the translation quality. Julian House’s model for translation quality assessment is such a scientific one which has fixed assessing procedures with various analytical parameters.The thesis provides a detailed introduction to House’s model and employs it to assess the quality of Howard Goldblatt’s translation Wolf Totem. Through the analysis, the thesis concludes that both advantages and defects exit in the model. Parameters such as register, genre and tenor make the procedures scientific. Also, the model has rich and comprehensive theoretical bases, but its operation takes a lot of time due to the large number of parameters. At the same time, some analytical parameters need to be revised as some overlap one another, such as social role relationship and social attitude.Moreover, the application of House’s model to Howard Goldblatt’s translation Wolf Totem reveals that though there are some mis-matches and errors, the conceptional and interpersonal functions of the source text are mostly kept, making the translation quality of the book satisfactory.The thesis aims to prove and evaluate the translation criticism theory by strictly following the model process. Also, it intends to explore a fixed model for textual analysis and guide future translation assessment. Moreover, translators and scholars may improve their proficiency and research ability through the thorough analysis in this thesis.