On Defamiliarization In Literary Translation

Defamiliarization is a core concept proposed by Russian formalist Victor Shklovsky. The essential idea of defamiliarization theory is to subvert habituation and automation of daily usage of language to make familiar elements fresh, novel and strange. Defamiliarization theory of Russian formalism is originally a literary theory, but it attracts the attention from the translation field and then it is introduced into translation research studies. During the process of translation, the translator may, through defamiliarization, abandon the general ways of expression and make the world of TT strange to refresh the readers'ability to perceive the novelty of language.Many translators have noticed the defamiliarization devices in the original and represented them into the target text in the process of translation in order to bring readers freshness of the form and content of the original. By far, most studies and essays probing into defamiliarization theory in translation studies discuss the representation of the original work in the target text. In such researches, translators represent defamiliarization devices of the original in the target text passively. However, from the perspective of literary translation re-creation, application of defamiliarization in literary translation is not a simple matter of translators'passive reproduction of defamiliarization features in the target text, but also a matter of presenting differential features of the original by artistic re-creation. In other words, based on the premise of fidelity of translation, completeness and harmony of translation, translators should try to make their selection, language and rhetoric novel, and get rid of cliches which are lack of freshness and strangeness, so as to preserve the unfamiliarity and exoticism in the target text. Foreignization can produce defamiliarization effect in the translation and bring target readers freshness.Mu Dan Ting, a great play written by Tang Xianzu, is elegant in style and rich in sentiment. It represents the peak of Chinese classical literature development, reflects rich history and culture of Chinese nation, and makes artistic achievements in many fields. Towards Mu Dan Ting, which is a famous classical literature rich in Chinese cultural flavor and is full of exoticism in the eyes of western readers, foreign translators and domestic translators have different translation inclination to whether keep such an exoticism in the target text so as to bring readers strangeness and freshness.The present thesis makes a study of the two translations of Mu Dan Ting by Birch and Wang Rongpei from the perspective of language and culture on the basis of defamiliarization theory. It is found that Birch in his translation employs foreignization to deliberately retain the linguistic and cultural specificities of the original so as to bring strangeness and freshness to target readers and increase their aesthetic perception. In this way, his translation achieves defamiliarization effect and helps readers experience exoticism. By comparison, Wang Rongpei in his translation adopts domestication to transform exotic parts of the original in the eyes of target readers into familiar expressions, so his translation is natural and understandable, but it fails to produce defamiliarization effect.