On The Reconstruction Of Peasant Image In Goldblatt’s The Garlic Ballads

As a representative of Chinese "rural literature",Mo Yan’s Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge takes Chinese peasants as the theme,and is full of unique Chinese rural cultural elements.Its rural narration and description of Chinese peasants are close to the rural reality and express their emotions and thoughts.The translation of Chinese literature about peasants is not only closely related to the construction and communication of the image of China but also an important factor affecting its cultural strength.In 1995,Tian Tang Suan Tai Zhi Ge was translated into English by Howard Goldblatt,helping to bring Chinese literature about peasants,Chinese peasant image,and Chinese rural cultures to the world.Under the theoretical framework of imagology,this thesis attempts to study the reconstructed image of Chinese peasants in Howard Goldblatt’s The Garlic Ballads.First,this thesis compares the target text with the source text to find the image of Chinese peasants reconstructed in the English translation.Then,this thesis describes and explains how the translator reconstructed the images of Chinese peasants at the levels of lexicon and plot.Additionally,with analysis against the macro-historical and cultural context,the thesis explores the factors underlying the image reconstruction from aspects of social collective imagination and translator.Finally,the mainstream media reviews and the target readers’comments are analyzed to explore the communication effect of the reconstructed image of peasants in the translation.By comprehensive analysis and research,this thesis found that,in the original text,the contemporary Chinese peasants have their political attitudes,some having immoral behaviors,and the young female peasants are relatively obedient to the oppression of patriarchal society.However,Goldblatt,by utilizing free translation,addition,and omission and some other translation strategies and methods,has reconstructed the images of the Chinese peasants in The Garlic Ballads:peasants living in a feudal society,being without political attitudes and observing morality,as well as the young female peasants who are braver and more independent.It was also found that Goldblatt’s reconstruction of such images is influenced by the collective imagination of the Western society,and his emotional attitude towards China and the Chinese people.In addition,his translation concepts are also another important reason.Finally,it was also found that Goldblatt’s reconstruction has a positive impact on the communication of peasants’ image overseas.This research provides a new perspective for the study on The Garlic Ballads,and gives illumination to reconstructing and studying Chinese images and offering some help for the translation studies on image reconstruction in the future.