Chapter OneINTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
Desert Rites is one of the most significant masterpieces of Xue Mo, which presentsboundless and harsh natural landscape as well as peculiar desert scenery, along withprofound traditional folk cultures rich in the West of China. As the representative writerof folk literature in West China, Xue Mo describes the current situation of peasants’living represented by the farmers of the Laoshun’s family who are overwhelmed in a seaof sufferings encompassing struggling for the survival difficulties, fighting against theailments and still thirsting for the prosperity. Blocked and impoverished as the naturalenvironment is, residents in the West of China still harbour a promising future facing upwith the various difficulties. What catches readers’ eyes is that there exists rich culturesembodied by folk language. In other words, whether the translator is capable oftranslating the folk language in an appropriate way is equal to whether he can presentthe Chinese folk cultures or not.
Howard Goldblatt is acknowledged as the most outstanding sinologist for he hastranslated multiple Chinese works into English with strong local peculiar features,especially the translation of folk language in Desert Rites. Therefore, the publication ofDesert Rites has attracted readers’ attention both at home and abroad in virtue of itsprofound language skills, rich Chinese cultural background, unique insights andproficient translation skills, all of which are conducive to conveying the original culturesto readers.
Translation variation theory was first proposed in the 1990s by Huang Zhonglian.The theory has experienced the construction period (1998-2008), the developmentperiod (2009-2017) and the expansion period (2018-). The theory is based on observingChinese translation practice, discovering the existing translation problems in our country.And then a systematic and theoretical translation theory based on the national situationsof the country was proposed. During the construction period, Professor HuangZhonglian explained the core concepts and theoretical framework of the translationtheory with the monographs and series of works such as Translation Variation Theory,Translation Variant Research and Scientific Translation Law. During the developmentperiod, the masterpieces such as Translation Methodology and Study on Yan Fu’sTranslation Thoughts are used as carriers to further enrich their researches in translationtheory and variation translation. In the past few years, lots of researches centering ontranslation variation theory have been conducted in China. Some researchers make ananalysis of the translation strategies applied to diverse texts such as tourism-orientedtexts, advertisement texts, literature texts from the perspective of translation variationtheory. And other researchers make use of the theory to guide their interpretationpractice. The previous researches prove that translation variation theory can elucidate avariety of translation phenomena. Thus, translation variation theory also offers a newapproach to studying the translation strategies of folk language.
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1.2 Significance of the Research
In the context of disseminating Chinese culture to the outside world, the translationand introduction of local culture is an inseparable part in telling Chinese stories andinterpreting Chinese characteristics well, from which foreigners can perceive the richculture unique to Chinese nation. Therefore, as the external manifestation of localculture, folk language plays a crucial role in spreading culture. Despite the widespreadof Xue Mo’s literary works at home and abroad, the studies on translating folk languagein English version is scarce. Thus, whether we can translate the folk language in anacceptable way to foreigners who lack affluent background information are able tocomprehend culture with distinctive local Chinese characteristics is of great significanceto spreading culture. This thesis attempts to analyze the translation of folk languagefrom the perspective of translation variation theory and the significance of thesis can beconcluded as follows:
Firstly, a lot of researches concerning Desert Rites are conducted. Some are aimedto analyze religious thoughts loaded in the work, folk cultures reflected in language,miserable conditions of peasants struggling to adapt to harsh natural environment andspecial sentiments about rural life embodied in author’s whole life. And other scholarscenter to analyzing the translation strategies in English version Desert Rites with theapplication of various translation theories. But few researchers focus their minds ontranslation of folk language. Precious historical and cultural relics are preserved in folklanguage from which human beings can appreciate historical achievements made in acertain local area. Besides, folk culture created in local area is recorded by language andwriting systems on which it depends that can be passed down to the next generation.Therefore, whether Chinese literature can go abroad or not is close to the translation of folk language. Before the main term of “folk Language” was formally proposed, manyscholars had frequently employed some branch terms such as dialect, proverb, idiom, soon. Zhou (2016) first put forward the “Folk Language” as the subject term in whichauthor clarifies its research scope, definition, significance specifically. Meanwhile, healso states some points and prospects on folk language which conform to China’s“Going Global” Project centering on promoting Chinese literature abroad and building acommunication bridge to target readers. He believes that folk language is the blood offolk culture; folk language is reflected in folk culture and folk language is inevitablydiscussed during the studies of folk culture; and folk language, as the fixed expressionsin Chinese culture, is a major part of Chinese culture publicity.
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Chapter TwoLITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies on Translation of Folk Language
Folk literature is characterized by the application of countless folk language, whichbears local color, gives a vivid description of local theme, creates a local atmosphere andalso manifests the personality of characters that are great importance to elaborate localculture and offer the great channel for foreigners to grasp the panorama of Chineseculture map. Under the background of Chinese culture going abroad, translating folklanguage becomes much significant. Folk language was first proposed by ZhouLingshun in 2016 as the academic concept. Before he applied for National SocialScience Project, many scholars have conducted researches in this field, which offerssome enlightenment to the further study. The research scope and target can be dividedinto three types at home. They mainly concentrate on the analysis of the translationstrategies and methods of folk language, the study of translation strategies of folklanguage from different perspectives, the study of concrete translation strategies indiverse literature styles. And there are also some major findings made in the West.
Firstly, some scholars study the translation strategies and methods of folk language at home under the guidance of various translation theory. Sang (2015) generalized thefocuses of dialect studies at home and abroad and concentrated on the descriptiveanalysis of translation strategies and the critical explanation of the translation strategiesabout some cases studies. However, there is short of explanations in terms of systematictheories concerning the choice of translation strategies in dialect translation. The authorproposes translation is a social activity and Activity Theory is a philosophicalframework which can offer the interpretation to the process of translation strategiesdecision-making. And in term of Activity Theory, the author attempted to work out anew approach to analyzing the selection of translation strategies in dialect studies. Wang(2016) assumes that pursuing the equivalence and faithfulness in the translation of folklanguage of modern Chinese fiction is unreasonable. Considering the constraints ofpolitical and cultural elements on translation of folk language is emerging prominent, heput forward one guiding principle called “partial representation” on which he alsoillustrated two translation strategies named “creation of new literary dialect” and“attenuation”. Meanwhile, he also stressed that the principle of “partial representation”can be adjusted to “full representation” as China’s literary status rises in target culture.Zhou & Gao (2017) drew a conclusion that Howard Goldblatt’s translator behaviorconform to the pattern of “truth-seeking” on the basic level and of “utility-attaining” onhigh- level attempt according to the analysis of the translation of Chinese folk languagemetaphors from the perspective of Translator Behavior Criticism which is based on thefolk language corpus 10 novels of Mo Yan Translated by Howard Goldblatt. Zhou &Zhou (2017) explored the translation of “狗” with an exhausted data based on corpus ofHoward Goldblatt’s translation of 10 novels of Mo Yan from which the author points tothe root prejudice existing in the translation mechanism of word “狗” and tries to probefor causes behind these phenomena. Hu (2017) adopted the theory of Homi k.Bhabha’sThird Space to analyze the translation practice of folk language in Mo Yan’s Life andDeath Are Wearing Me Out. Then she summarizes the results of her research that thetranslator Howard Goldblatt builds up the third space between the C-E culture andadopts the translation strategies combining domestication and foreignization satisfyingthe needs of readers’ reading preferences.
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2.2 Previous Studies on English Version of Xue Mo’s Desert Rites
Xue Mo is the one of most representative novelists in the West China who is adeptin portraying rural life in his folk literature with local vernacular confined to Gansuprovince of the West China. Desert Rites, written in folk language commonly used inWu Wei, is the crystallization of the author’s twelve years of wisdom. Once published, itaroused a heated discussion among scholars at home who are engaged by his magicalrealistic techniques, raw materials of local life, profound religious theme and distinctivefeatures of language. However, the studies of Desert Rites haven’t attracted enoughattention among overseas scholars since the English version was published only in 2018.In addition, there is absence of the translation of Xue Mo’s works before, so the studies of English version of Desert Rites made by foreign scholars are still scarce. In a word,the current studies of English version of Desert Rites are mainly concentrated in scholarsat home. Postgraduate Pan (2019) made an analysis of translator’s subjectivity inEnglish version of Desert Rites under the guidance of hermeneutic theory and the authoranalyzes how the translator’s exerts his subjectivity by means of investigating manytranslation examples selected from English version in order to further analyze the valuesand limitations of translator’s subjectivity exploited into different situations. In the end,the author figures out what translation strategies respectively employed in four steps ofthe translation from the hermeneutic perspective are conducive to bringing thetranslator’s subjectivity into full play. Wang (2019) selected 649 pieces of folk languagefrom Desert Rites to analyze the degree of “truth-seeking”and “utility-attaining” basedon the translator behavior criticism with the approach of combining the qualitative andquantitative analytical description. And they point out what motives and objectivesbehind the translation of Chinese folk cultures may cause the degree of“utility-attaining” is universally greater than the degree of “truth-seeking” in translatedversion.
语言文学论文参考
Chapter Three THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.............................. 17
3.1 Basic Claims of Translation Variation Theory........................................ 17
3.1.1 Rise and development of translation variation theory...........................17
3.1.2 Complete translation and translation variation......................................20
Chapter Four Analysis of Translation Strategies Applied in Desert Ritesfrom Translation Variation Theory................. 29
4.1 Definition and Category of Folk Language.....................................29
4.2 Functions of Folk Language in Chinese Literary Works.................................30
Chapter Five CONCLUSION...............................62
5.1 Major Findings.................................... 62
5.2 Limitations..........................................64
Chapter FiveCONCLUSION
5.1 Major Findings
This thesis mainly introduces the translation strategies and methods proposed byProfessor Huang Zhonglian in his masterpiece Translation Variation Theory. And thetheory is applied to analyze the translation strategies in dealing with folk language inDesert Rites and explore the deep motivations behind the variation. On the basis ofstudying the translated version and the original text, the author has drawn the followingfindings from conducting investigations and studies on the translation cases.
First of all, five translation strategies based on the translation variation theory arewidely applied into the translation of folk language selected from Desert Rites. Thetranslation strategy of supplement is applied into dealing with idioms and proverbs andadds necessary explanations to the folk language rooted in some regions full of richcultural connotations or to the complicated content that exists for a long time in history,thus contributing to understanding the original content, and promoting the spread ofethnic cultures. Considering the differences in Chinese and Western cultures, theadoption of translation strategy of edition is unavoidable, which organizes the importantinformation of the original text and reconstructs the translated paragraphs in an orderlymanner. In short, the structure of the translated version is clearly and logically interlocked, which makes it possible to meet the reading habits of the target readers andfurther arouse the enthusiasm of readers for reading local novels. When the translatedversion is widely popular among target language readers, the external influence of ourChinese local novels on spreading folk cultures will be further expanded. The adoptionof deletion is helpful to delete the redundant information that is not needed by the targetreaders. The deletion of information makes the translated text more economical andconcise. Adaptation transforms the obscure and difficult folk language of the originalwork into some expressions that readers are familiar with which enables the targetreaders to appreciate the peculiarity of the folk cultures. In addition, the translationstrategy of combination is also used in Desert Rites. The combination of sentences,sentences clusters, paragraphs, texts, chapters or even a whole work makes the targettext more compact.
语言文学论文怎么写
Chapter FiveCONCLUSION
5.1 Major Findings
This thesis mainly introduces the translation strategies and methods proposed byProfessor Huang Zhonglian in his masterpiece Translation Variation Theory. And thetheory is applied to analyze the translation strategies in dealing with folk language inDesert Rites and explore the deep motivations behind the variation. On the basis ofstudying the translated version and the original text, the author has drawn the followingfindings from conducting investigations and studies on the translation cases.
First of all, five translation strategies based on the translation variation theory arewidely applied into the translation of folk language selected from Desert Rites. Thetranslation strategy of supplement is applied into dealing with idioms and proverbs andadds necessary explanations to the folk language rooted in some regions full of richcultural connotations or to the complicated content that exists for a long time in history,thus contributing to understanding the original content, and promoting the spread ofethnic cultures. Considering the differences in Chinese and Western cultures, theadoption of translation strategy of edition is unavoidable, which organizes the importantinformation of the original text and reconstructs the translated paragraphs in an orderlymanner. In short, the structure of the translated version is clearly and logically interlocked, which makes it possible to meet the reading habits of the target readers andfurther arouse the enthusiasm of readers for reading local novels. When the translatedversion is widely popular among target language readers, the external influence of ourChinese local novels on spreading folk cultures will be further expanded. The adoptionof deletion is helpful to delete the redundant information that is not needed by the targetreaders. The deletion of information makes the translated text more economical andconcise. Adaptation transforms the obscure and difficult folk language of the originalwork into some expressions that readers are familiar with which enables the targetreaders to appreciate the peculiarity of the folk cultures. In addition, the translationstrategy of combination is also used in Desert Rites. The combination of sentences,sentences clusters, paragraphs, texts, chapters or even a whole work makes the targettext more compact.
reference(omitted)