A Comparative Analysis Of Domestication And Foreignization In The Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Skopos theory was firstly proposed by Vermeer in1970s as a term for the purpose of atranslation and the action of translating. Based on skopos theory, translation is a purposefulactivity. The prime principle which determines the translation process is the purpose of thewhole translation action. In brief, the choice of translation strategy is determined by theskopos of the translator. As the two main translation strategies, domestication andforeignization are the focus of dispute of translators in China and west. Skopos theoryprovides a new perspective for translation criticism, increases the possibilities of translationand extends the range of possible translation strategies.This thesis mainly studies the translations in two versions of Hong Lou Meng from theperspective of the theories above. The translations of architecture culture and indoorfurnishing, diet culture and dress culture in the source text are provided as typical cases study.By analysis, according to their respective skopos Yang Xianyi mainly adopts foreignizationwhile Hawkes mainly chooses domestication. The application of two different methods fullyembody their preciseness towards translating creation in translating process, and achieve tobe responsible towards the source text and the target language readers.