1.2 Introduction to the English Version Red Sorghum and Howard Goldblatt 2

2 Literature Review 4

3 Domestication in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation in Red Sorghum 6

3.1 The Practical Use of Domestication in Red Sorghum 6

3.1.1 Translation of Characters’ Names in Red Sorghum 6

3.1.2 Translation of Special Terms with Chinese Characteristics 7

3.1.3 Translation of Chinese Food in Red Sorghum 8

3.2 Practical Effects of Domestication in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation of Red Sorghum 9

4 Foreignization in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation of Red Sorghum 9

4.1 The Practical Use of Foreignization in Red Sorghum 9

4.1.1 Translation of Coarse Language 9

4.1.2 Translation of Chinese Proverbs and Idioms 10

4.1.3 Translation of Place Names 11

4.2 Practical Effects of Foreignization in Howard Goldblatt’s Translation Red Sorghum 12

5 Relationships between Domestication and Foreignization 13

5.1 Merits and Demerits of Domestication and Foreignization 13

5.2 Complementarities of Domestication and Foreignization in Red Sorghum 13

5.2.1 Translation plus Annotation 13

5.2.2 Substitution Translation 15

5.2.3 Cultural Omission Translation 16

5.3 Practical Effects of the Domestication and Foreignization Application 18

5.3.1 The Wide Acceptance of Red Sorghum in English-Speaking Countries 18

5.3.2 Positive Effects on Chinese Literary Translation 18

6 Conclusions 19

6.1 General Summary 19

6.2 Limitations 20

6.3 Suggestions for Further Studies 20

References 21

An Analysis of Domestication and Foreignization in the Translation of Red Sorghum

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction to Red Sorghum

It is widely acknowledged that Red Sorghum is a successful literary work in Chinese literature history because its writer, Moyan, won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2012. Red Sorghum, is a representative novel written by Moyan. Moyan was born in a poor family in Shandong Province. During the Cultural Revolution, Moyan dropped out of school and began to work in a factory. At that time, Chinese literature witnessed great changes at the end of 1970s and 1980s, a variety of writing sprung up with fresh and distinctive subject matters, such as “scar literature”and “root-seeking literature”. Red Sorghum is deemed as a magnum opus at the era of “root-seeking literature” in 1980s, which had a huge impact on contemporary literature. This novel has been translated into about 20 languages and also the first novel was translated into foreign language. It was published as a novel called Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu by People’s Liberation Army Publishing House in Beijing in 1987. Since then, Red Sorghum has attracted the great attention of numerous readers both at home and abroad.

As a matter of fact, Red Sorghum is a miniature of people’s daily life during the War of Resistance against Japan in Moyan's hometown. The inspiration of this novel was also derived from the life of the local people and the brave events of their predecessors during the anti-Japanese invasion in Gaomi, a city situated in eastern Shandong Province. Unlike other literature works about fighting against the Japanese, Red Sorghum was written from the angle of the people who live in the country in order to get close to real life. Red Sorghum has also showed us a mysterious place with the distinctive local customs, unique local culture and special local language.

Now foreigners in growing numbers are beginning to read Red Sorghum because they want to know about the in-depth meaning and charm of this masterpiece. This is a good sign. People have great anticipation of those who work on the translation of Red Sorghum. Some people believe that in the translation of Red Sorghum one cannot emphasize too much the importance of domestication because most of the foreigners can hardly understand Chinese and they just read it in the heat of the moment. However, other people have a different attitude. They hold the view that people who read Red Sorghum have strong interest in Chinese culture so it is very important for these people to fully understand the authentic Chinese language and culture. Therefore, they prefer foreignization and they do not even want a slight change in the translation in order to retain the original features of the work to a great extent.