莫言作品的国外读者评论——基于亚马逊网站莫言作品英译本“用户评论”的研究

Foreign Readers' Reviews of Mo Yan's Works:Based on the Consumer Reviews of English Versions of His Works on Amazon.com

国外读者的评论与评价是研究和衡量作品对外译介效果的一个重要方面。文章借助亚马逊网站(Amazon.com)"用户评论"(Consumer Reviews)这一庞大信息库,考察了以该网站用户为代表的国外读者近二十年来(1995—2015)对莫言作品英译本的评论情况。用户评论数据统计显示,莫言作品英译本评论较少,评分不高,且评论较少又在一定程度上造成译本销售情况的不理想。莫言作品或英译本中存在一些需要正视和重视的"问题",具体包括:作品篇幅、人物数量及角色姓名造成阅读负累,存在大量容易引起反感的描写,故事内容的相对真实性,人物命运和故事结局呈现悲剧色彩,编辑、排版、印刷等方面有缺憾等等。结合以上发现,就今后如何利用亚马逊网站"用户评论"这样重要的"阵地"和"平台"继续推进莫言作品的对外译介乃至中国文学"走出去"提出了建议。

Foreign readers＇ reviews are important to study and evaluate the effect of literature translation and in- troduction abroad.This paper, based on Consumer Reviews on Amazon.corn such a large information database, investigates foreign readers＇ reviews （1995--2015） represented by Amazon. corn consumers concerning the English translations of Mo Yan＇ s works.Statistical data of the reviews reveals there are few consumers reviewing the English translations of Mo Yah＇ s works,neither they score the translations high,which to some degree leads to the sluggish sale.A scrutiny of the reviews shows there are ＂flaws＂ in Mo Yan＇ s works or the translations, such as reading burden caused by book length, character number and names;antipathies caused by improper de- scriptions ; authenticity of the plots, fate of the characters, ending of the stories, editing, typesetting and printing problems.Finally,this paper proposes some suggestions on bow to make use of such important ＂platforms＂ as Consumer Reviews on Amazon.com to further promote Mo Yah＇ s works abroad and ＂going out of Chinese Litera- ture＂ in the future.