The Translator's Conformity And Resistance From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Sandalwood Death,translated by Howard Goldblatt,was published ensuing the year of Mo Yan's winning of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature and has since been well-received overseas.Despite great success in the West,it attracts little attention from the academia,if any.Previous study is narrowly confined to the linguistic level and has failed to assess the translation in a cultural context.The present study intends to investigate the translation of Sandalwood Death from the perspective of rewriting theory,i.e.,in what ways conformity to or resistance against the manipulation of ideology,poetics and patronage is manifested in the translation,so as to better understand why it has attracted enthusiastic reception overseas.The findings of the study are presented in the order of ideological,poetological and patronage manipulation.The selection of the source text is largely dependent on American national ideology and social ideology,both of which also influence the translation strategies for political,superstitious and religious terms.Poetics holds sway over lexis,syntax and rhetoric,such as the translation of allusions and metaphors.Patronage is in charge of cover design and serves as a "gatekeeper" to ensure the translation not far away from the dominant ideology in the receiving culture.Through a careful analysis of the aforementioned categories,five translation strategies are identified:literal translation,transliteration.substitution,omission and adaptation,all of which are employed to safeguard both exoticism and readabilityThis study can be categorized as a translation criticism.The results suggest that in order to facilitate a warm reception of translated Chinese literature overseas,the dominant poetics and ideology in the target culture should be given more thought;besides,the source text should reveal the characteristics of Chinese literature while fitting in with world literature.