Domestication And Foreignization In C-E Translation Of Political Writings

There are two basic translation strategies: domestication and foreignization. The former means bringing the foreign culture closer to the reader in the target culture, making the target text recognizable and familiar to the readers. Foreignization, on the other hand, means taking the reader over to the source text and in turn to the foreign culture, making him or her see the differences. In the present thesis, the author introduces the theory of domestication and foreignization and hopes to provide help to translators involved in translating Chinese political writings into English.As the reform and opening up speeds up, especially as China entered WTO and the Olympic games will be held in Beijing in 2008, China has become more influential in the world than ever before. More and more people want to know China, not only its culture and history, but also its present political and economic development. Therefore, the translation of Chinese political writings has become an important medium for foreigners to know China's current development, which not only builds bridges between nations, races, cultures but also serves as an important means for promoting mutual understandings between different countries with divergent political systems. Although many translators have made great contribution in this field, the author of this thesis thinks there are two prevailing problems in C-E translation of Political writings. One is inappropriate literalism; the other is highly paraphrastic translation. This thesis is an attempt to explore effective methods for translating Chinese political writings from the angle of culture. Since language is the carrier of culture, and there is no exception of political writings, it is natural that we should adopt domestication and foreignization to translate Chinese political writings.This thesis is composed of four parts. Chapter 1 introduces the theory of domestication...