Translation As Rewriting: A Case Study Of Goldblatt's Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out

Shengsi pilao is Mo Yan's tenth novel.In response to the organizers of Nobel Prize in Literature about recommending his works to readers,Mo Yan chose Shengsi pilao for the reason that the novel reflected his writing style and his exploration on the art of novel.The novel is translated by Howard Goldblatt,the English-language translator of over fifty Chinese literary works.There is a controversy about his translating strategies.“Deletion”,“abridgement”,and even “overhaul” became his labels.Through a contrastive study of Shengsi pilao and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out,I found a great deal of rewritings in the translated version.Therefore,I employ rewriting theory to carry out the case study.Rewriting theory is put forward by André Lefevere,a prominent member of the Manipulation School.He mentions various factors responsible for rewriting in his different works,including ideology,poetics,patronage,Universe of Discourse etc.This thesis tries to figure out the relationship among these factors,and argues that ideology and poetics are relatively fixed ideas,and since man can challenge those constraints,it is reasonable to include the translator as a human factor.Therefore,the case study is based on the following factors: ideology,poetics,patronage,and the translator's subjectivity.The conclusion is that Goldblatt's rewritings of the text make the novel more accessible to the target readers.It is the first step of “go global” strategy of China's literature and it paved the path for more foreign readers to learn more about China.