On Translator’s Subjectivity as Exemplified in the Translation of Shengsi pilao by Howard Goldblatt

Abstract: Mo Yan’s novels are rooted in ancient Chinese civilization. With rich imagination and unique writing styles, he depicts in them what has happened in the rural and urban areas of China. That he became the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner was largely due to the English translation of his works by Howard Goldblatt, an American translator. This paper aims to analyze H. Goldblatt’s subjectivity in his translation Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, and it finds that there are two forms of subjectivity: performance and suppression. On the one hand, Goldblatt has to consider the acceptance of his translation, but on the other hand he has been strongly influenced by his own ideology and poetics. Therefore, basing on Western culture, he has chosen domestication as his main translation strategy and employed other techniques such as deletion, addition, adaptation and annotation. All of the above has shown his subjectivity. In addition, Goldblatt has to take into account opinions of English editors, American publishers and critics. These subjects, to a certain extent, have limited his performance of subjectivity and made him consider other extra-text factors such as the aesthetic orientation of English readers, economic benefits, etc.

Key words: Howard Goldblatt; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out; translator’s subjectivity

JIN Luobin VOLUME 1 APJHSS.pdf