当代中国乡土文学在英语国家的翻译和接受——以莫言与贾平凹为例

Translation and Reception of Chinese Contemporary Folk Literature in the Anglophone World—With Mo Yan and Jia Pingwa as a Case

莫言和贾平凹均为我国乡土文学领域的璀璨之星,他们在创作成就和所获荣誉方面难分伯仲,国内影响力也几乎等同。然而,在中长篇小说的英文翻译领域,本文研究发现,莫言的小说在翻译数量、出版时间跨度、再版次数以及读者接受度方面都优于贾平凹,这与他们的创作手法、翻译模式、传播渠道和读者定位等因素密切相关。莫言的作品更具国际性,叙事技巧丰富,主题深刻,并得到了稳定的译者团队和成熟的出版商支持,从而取得了良好的传播效果。贾平凹的作品则略显小众,翻译模式和传播渠道相对薄弱,读者定位不够清晰,导致其作品在英语世界的接受度有待提高。本文深入分析莫言与贾平凹作品英译的差异,以期为中国乡土文学的国际化传播探索出一条有效路径。As outstanding representatives of Chinese folk literature, Mo Yan and Jia Pingwa have achieved comparable success in their creative endeavors and received similar honors, yielding substantial domestic influence. However, when it comes to the English translation of their novels, the findings reveal that Mo Yan’s novels have been more successful in terms of the number of translations, publication span, reprint rate, and reader acceptance compared to Jia Pingwa’s works. This difference can be attributed to their artistic styles, translation models, dissemination channels, and reader positioning. Mo Yan’s works are more international in style, featuring rich narrative techniques and profound themes. He has benefited from a stable team of translators and established publishers, contributing to effective dissemination. In contrast, Jia Pingwa’s works are more niche, with weaker translation models and dissemination channels, and unclear reader positioning, resulting in limited acceptance in the anglophone world. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the differences in the English translations of Mo Yan’s and Jia Pingwa’s works, with the aim of exploring an effective path for the international dissemination of Chinese folk literature.