On the Translation of Cultural Words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips

By

Song Ru

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May 20^th, 2017

Acknowledgments

First of all,I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Mr. Xia Yang, for his constant guidance.He has offered me valuable suggestions and criticism with his profound knowledge.Without his insightful viewpoints, incisive comments and insightful instruction, it would be impossible for me to finish this thesis.

In addition,my gratitude also extends to my friends who offered me valuable suggestions and comforted me when I was down.

Finally, I would like to thank my beloved parents who have always been carrying me through many trials and supporting me without hesitation.

On the Translation of Cultural Words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips

Song Ru

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: Translation is particularly important in the process of intercultural communication. The quality of translation directly affects the original author’ s and his works’ reputation. Howard Goldblatt makes a crucial contribution to the attention that Big Breasts and Wide Hips（丰乳肥臀）has been received around the world. This paper makes a detailed comparison between the English and Chinese versions of Big Breasts and Wide Hips. This article is meant for the purpose of analyzing the translation tragedies and translation methods Howard used in translating Big Breasts and Wide Hips. This paper first introduces who is Howard Goldblatt, Mo Yan’ s Big Breasts and Wide Hips, the background and purpose of this study. Then this paper talks about the two translation strategies: domestication and foreignization and their relationship. Finally, this paper takes cultural words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips for instance to analyse the applications of domestication and foreignization in the translation of cultural words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips.

Key Words: Cultural words, Domestication, Foreignization, Big Breasts and Wide Hips

摘 要

在跨文化交际中，翻译起了尤为重要的作用，译文的水平很容易影响原作者及其作品的名声。莫言的代表作之一《丰乳肥臀》能在海外受到如此多的关注，译者葛浩文功不可没。本文对《丰乳肥臀》的中英译本做了具体的分析，以探究葛浩文在翻译《丰乳肥臀》中文化词时所使用的翻译策略和翻译方法。本文首先介绍葛浩文和莫言作品《丰乳肥臀》以及本文研究的背景和目的，其次谈及归化和异化这两个翻译策略及两者之间的关系，然后本文研究了归化和异化翻译策略在《丰乳肥臀》文化词翻译中的应用。

关键词：文化词；归化；异化；《丰乳肥臀》

Content

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background and Significance of the Study 1

1.2 About Howard Goldblatt and Mo Yan’ s Big Breasts and Wide Hips 2

1.3 Research Purpose 3

2. Literature Review 3

2.1 Definition of Cultural Words 3

2.2 Previous Studies on the Translation of Cultural Words 4

3. Theoretical Framework 5

3.1 Two Translation Strategies of Domestication and Foreignization 5

3.1.1 Domestication 6

3.1.2 Foreignization 6

3.2 The Relationship between Domestication and Foreignization 7

4. Two Translation Strategies of Cultural Words Used in Big Breasts and Wide Hips 8

4.1 Application of Domestication of Translating Cultural Words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips 8

4.1.1 Free Translation 8

4.1.2 Omission 10

4.1.3 Substitution 11

4.2 Application of Foreignization of Translating Cultural Words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips 11

4.2.3 Literal Translation 11

4.2.2 Literal Translation with Annotation 12

4.2.3Transliteration 13

4.2.4 Transliteration with Annotation 14

5. Factors Influencing the Translator’ s method in Translation 14

5.1 Translator’ s Translation Aesthetics 15

5.2 The Linguistic Features of the Original 15

6. Conclusion 16

6.1 Findings of the study 16

6.2 Limitations of the study 17

References 18

1. Introduction

Language is a communication system applied by a particular country or community. Additionally, as language can express facts, emotions and ideas during communication, language is regarded as a manifestation of national culture and language still keeps a close relationship with culture. Generally, a nation is regarded as a group, in which people share the same history, custom, belief and geographic locations with each other. However, people usually consider that language is the main character to distinguish between nations. In the era of globalization, Internet and advanced technology have strengthened the communication and collaboration between countries, and also created a dense cross-cultural atmosphere. However, cross-cultural communication in the field of academic translation seems to be more problematic. Therefore, when translators devote themselves to translate one language into another one, they should also try to enhance cross-cultural communication by translation. For this, translation should explain cultural words, which requires translator not only to master two languages, but also to understand the culture of the two countries. Cultural words refer to the words or phrases which express cultural connotation and deep emotion, which can be only understood in certain culture. It is not correct if translators only translate the text simply instead of culturally, which also just like the cultural translation theory in 1990s. They advocated the ‘Cultural Turn’(文化转向) in Translation Studies and pointed out the cultural differences and conflict between source language and target language in translation. This thesis intends to analyze what translation strategies Howard Goldblatt used in the translation of cultural words in Big Breasts and Wide Hips by analyzing the Chinese and English versions..

1.1 Background and Significance of the Study

Mo Yan is the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. After he won the Nobel Prize, Mo Yan and his works are known by more and more people in the West. Before Mo Yan became famous as a writer, Michael S. Duke once predicted that he "shows tremendous promise of becoming a truly great writer” ( Duke,1993:392). Big Breasts and Wide Hips is one of the most famous works of Mo Yan. As Mo Yan said: " If you like, you can not read my other works, but you must read Big Breasts and Wide Hips ( Mo Yan, 2000: 173).”

In the current background of globalization, cross-cultural exchanges and international cooperation are increasingly important. Mo Yan’ s winning the Nobel Prize is really a good start for Chinese Literature to be known by the world. It is worthwhile to mention that Goldblatt’ s translation plays an important role in the achievement of this novel. The translation should be committed to the transmission of different culture. In this paper, the words which reflect the deep culture are called "cultural words”. The misinterpretation of cultural words can lead to inaccurate translation, which will affects culture spread. Whether a translator’ s comprehension of a certain paragraph is right or not depends on his analysis of cultural words in source language and his correct expression of the cultural words. Thus, it is so important to translate cultural words .

1.2 About Howard Goldblatt and Mo Yan’ s Big Breasts and Wide Hips

American famous sinologist, Howard Goldblatt, is the translator of Mo Yan’s works. He was born in 1939, and studied Chinese in Taiwan when he joined in the army in 1960s, and received a Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from the University of Indiana. He first translated Xiao Hong’ s works when he wrote his thesis about Xiao Hong. Then, Goldblatt started to translate Chinese literary works. He has translated more than 60 works of over 30 Chinese writers, and he is the only one who has translated the most Chinese novels in history. His translation is rigorous and remarkable. Without his translation, Mo Yan will never win the Nobel Prize.

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