Rewriting, Manipulation and Translator Subjectivity - Translating Chinese Literature in a Global Context

This book 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 objectives as a literary translator. The author analyses both the translation and its paratext to gain a more complete understanding of Goldblatt's accomplishments, and examines how Goldblatt rewrites the original text under the influence of various patronage factors, such as the original author, publisher, editor, market expectancy, literary collaborator, and the target reader. This book provides a comprehensive picture of the production, reception and dissemination of Goldblatt's translation, exposing the motivations behind his translation in full measure, and it will be of interest to students and scholars of Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and Literary Studies, and Chinese Culture and Literature.


Hu Liu is lecturer at West Anhui University, China. He completed his PhD in translation studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, from 2016 to 2021.