Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.2 Relevant Research on Goldblatt’s Translation
In “The Cultural Politics of Taiwan Literature in English Translation,” Shui-tsai Chang examines the habitus, disposition and translation strategies of two important translators Howard Goldblatt and John Balcom, aiming to unearth their influences on the development and promotion of Taiwan literature. She states that in the series of Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan, Goldblatt has translated works of five
Taiwanese writers, namely, Chen-ho Wang, Tien-hsin Chu, Chun-ming Huang, Tien-wen Chu, and Shu-qing Shi.
Regarding Ang Li’s The Butcher’s Wife, it is argued that Goldblatt seldom makes changes and adds annotations to his translation. However, comparing the book title of the English edition with other language editions, Chang points out that Goldblatt’s manifest narrative style could not be ignored (105). In other language editions of this book, the book title is transliterated as “Sha Fu”, whereas the English edition is translated by Goldblatt as “The Butcher’s Wife.” Also, Goldblatt’s role as a translator remains visible in his review and translation of Taiwan literature or Chinese literature (106).
Chang also mentions Goldblatt’s rendering of “The Old Capital.” There are many descriptions of plants in this novella. Instead of adopting the botanical names in Taiwan, Goldblatt tends to render plant names in a way that American readers are able to
understand while mimicking Chu’s tone of voice (109).
In “Howard Goldblatt’s Translation of Taiwan’s Six Novels and Their Publication:
A Paratextual Analysis,” Fen-ying Lin investigates into Goldblatt’s six translated works:
The Drowning of an Old Cat and Other Stories, The Butcher’s Wife, Rose Rose I Love
You, The Taste of Apples, Crystal Boys, and The Old Capital. She gives an overview of how these works are selected, promoted and advertised in America by conducting a paratextual analysis on the design of the cover and the back cover; the book’s reviews and commentary from renowned magazine or newspaper; the preface of the author or the translator and the translator’s note (21).
Lin reviews the online information of the above six translated works. It is found that introductions of the six translated novels and those of the originals are presented online differently. In these translated works, the introductions of the authors focus on the authors’ talents in writing, whereas the introductions of the authors in the originals put emphasis on the authors’ biographical sketches or their renowned works. In addition, it is speculated that the translator Howard Goldblatt being highly recommended on the Internet may contribute to the sales of these books. In the originals, the awards these books receive are indicated (31-32).
Concerning book cover design, Lin discovers that the book covers of these translated novels correspond to their book titles and contents in a large part. But in the originals, take The Old Capital for example, the publisher put the author Tien-hsin Chu’s photo on the cover, which may reveal that Chu’s reputation may be of help to the sales of the book. As for the translated works, since foreign readers of the translated novels are unfamiliar with these Taiwanese authors and their works, elaborately designed covers may spur their interests in the books and boost the selling of these novels (41).
Carlos G Tee discusses the implications of translators’ freedom for translation strategy, production and function by investigating into Chen-ho Wang’s novel, Rose Rose I Love You, translated by Howard Goldblatt. His research shows that in Goldblatt’s translation, “some foreign items are exaggerated by addition in the translation,
semantically, tonally or by other means” (130). He named this phenomenon exotic shift.
By examining several examples in this translated novel, he unearths Goldblatt’s translation belief and ideology.
Xiao-hui Liang inquiries into different conceptual blending with different cultural frames manifested in the English translation of Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips rendered by Howard Goldblatt. Liang draws upon insights from Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory to examine three conceptual metaphor systems in the original novel, namely, [BREAST], [ANIMAL], and [CELESTIAL BODY] as the target domains with [HUMAN BEING] as the source domain. It is discovered that although Goldblatt preserves most of Mo Yan’s culturally-loaded metaphorical expressions, in some situations he reveals his Western cultural frames, demonstrating his tendency in conceptual blending which develops differently from that of Mo Yan.
For instance, to Mo Yan and Chinese farmers, livestock such as horses, donkeys, and mules are often treated as family members or fellow human beings of their hometown, hence the pervasive conceptual metaphor ANIMALS ARE HUMAN BEINGS in this novel. In the translation, however, this layer of conceptual metaphor disappears in Goldblatt’s blended construal (781-785). The emphasis on the relationship between animals and human beings is thus weakened in the translated version.
Liang’s research discloses the cognitive foundation of Goldblatt’s construal or misconstrual of Mo Yan’s metaphors while indicating that ideology and cognitive are two indispensable factors working together in driving a translator to make choices as what he or she does. There may be more reasons behind Goldblatt’s misunderstanding of Chinese culture in the case of Big Breasts and Wide Hips (771-794).
Different from Liang’s approach, Wen-sheng Deng and Ke Zhang introduces and discusses Howard Goldblatt’s three treaties or treatments of translation. Goldblatt’s
translation of Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum: A Novel of China and Sandalwood Death are taken as examples for analysis. It is discovered that his translation is faithful to the original as an organic unity, retaining the original imagery while taking the readers of his translation into first consideration (49). With these three treatments of translation, Goldblatt’s translations are able to receive a favorable response and are acclaimed by the world.
In “Hankering after Sovereign Images: Modern Chinese Fiction and the Voices of Howard Goldblatt,” Christopher Lupke delves into Goldblatt’s contribution to Chinese literature in the western world from a holistic perspective (87-92). He speaks highly of Goldblatt for “his consistent ability to play the part of the literary chameleon, not simply rendering Chinese works into English well, but exhausting his creative powers to
capture the true flavor of the original” (88). Additionally, Lupke lists examples from Xiao Hong’s Tales of Hulan River (Hulan he zhuan 內) and Jiang Yang’s Six Chapters from My Life “Downunder” (Ganxiao liu ji ), giving recognition for Goldblatt’s ability to “work and rework similar themes and overlapping historical
epochs” and his efforts in “highlighting the fiction of outstanding female authors” such as Ang Li, Jie Zhang, Tien-wen Chu and Tien-hsin Chu (89-90). Tien-hsin Chu’s The Old Capital, for instance, is hailed by Lupke as “one of the most exquisite and lustrous interior monologues in modern Chinese,” whom Goldblatt exerts himself to translate.
After a comprehensive review of Goldblatt’s translation career and oeuvre, Lupke reaffirms Goldblatt’s irreplaceable importance in the field of contemporary Chinese literature translation.
From the above research, it is discovered that the “award-winning” translated works by Howard Goldblatt are often scrutinized and taken as research materials. By
contrast, Tien-hsin Chu’s The Old Capital does not receive that much attention. For one thing, “The Old Capital” might be too abstruse for general readers, and the phenomena involved are multiple. For the other, the “award-winning factor” of the translation may more or less affect the acceptability of a work in the market and academic circles.