Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out: Rewriting, Manipulation and Translator Subjectivity

Abstract

Drawing on André Lefevere’s rewriting theory and previous research on translator subjectivity, this thesis presents an in-depth analysis of Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (L&D). It explores how Goldblatt translates the original novel under the influence of three major manipulative powers: poetics, ideology and patronage, as well as his own subjectivity (translator subjectivity), to achieve his accomplishments as a literary translator. My research analyses both the translation and its paratext to gain a more complete understanding of Goldblatt’s accomplishments. By way of textual analysis of the translation, I probe into how Goldblatt rewrites the original text under the influence of poetological and ideological factors, as well as his own subjectivity, to produce a translation tailored to his target audience. With the help of paratext analysis, I examine how Goldblatt rewrites the original text under the influence of various patronage factors, such as the original author, publisher, editor, market expectancy, literary cooperative/agent, and the target reader. My analyses provide a comprehensive picture of the production, reception and dissemination of Goldblatt’s translation, thus exposing the motivations behind his translation in full measure. This thesis demonstrates the success of Goldblatt’s translation of L&D owes much to his appropriate rewriting of the source text (ST) in favour of the dominant target ideology and poetics, so that his translation satisfies the reception habits and aesthetical preferences of the intended audience. This thesis also demonstrates Goldblatt’s success to be attributable to his skills in mediating between various external power constraints, culminating in his production of a translation geared to the reader’s expectation. If reasons for the success of Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s L&D are better understood, our ability to develop future Chinese literary translations (and cross-cultural translations in general) will be similarly improved.