On The Translation Strategies Of Culture-specific Items

The backdrop of globalization brings about more intensive and frequent exchangesbetween peoples of different countries and nationalities whereas the discrepancy ofcultures often hinders the effective communication. As the bridge of interculturalcommunication, translation not only involves linguistic transformation but also themode shift and transference of cultural information. How to transfer the culturalinformation—especially the culture-specific items, validly to a foreign language andreconcile the cultural differences, has become a research hotspot which bears certainpractical significance.Unlike previous studies, which mainly focused on selection of literal or freetranslation, foreignization or domestication approach, this thesis intends to describetranslation phenomenon in an objective manner and put its major concern on thetranslation techniques. Given the importance of cultural factors in translation,culture-specific item, an immediate reflection, has been long drawing the eyes ofscholars at home and abroad. They have put forward a variety of constructive strategiesin rendering such items but far from reaching consensus. This thesis argues that thetaxonomy of translation strategies proposed by the Spanish translation scholar Aixela interms of varying degrees of intercultural manipulation has outstripped other categoriesfor its completeness and systematic order. Through proper modifications, Aixela’staxonomy can be applied as a guiding framework to the C-E translation ofculture-specific items (CSIs).Fu Sheng Liu Ji, an autobiographical novel written by Shen Fu (a litterateur in QingDynasty), contains abundant cultural elements that epitomize the unique traits oftraditional Chinese culture. And Lin Yutang, the translator, has achieved great success inthe accurate and effective translation of culture-specific items therefore makes hisEnglish version widely recognized among the western readers. The present thesisconducts a thorough survey on Chinese CSIs in Fu Sheng Liu Ji and classifies themaccording to different types of subcultures, which paves a foundation for the detailedanalysis of translation strategies. Under the framework of Aixela’s translation theory,this thesis makes an attempt to analyze the strategies adopted by Lin Yutang in C-Erendering of CSIs in this book including conservation (transcription, transliteration,linguistic translation, inter-textual gloss and extra-textual gloss) as well as substitution (limited universalization, absolute universalization, naturalization, deletion andautonomous creation), and tentatively explores some underlying factors concerningtranslator’s choice of strategies (super-textual parameter, textual and inter-textualparameter). Feasible results of this research are summarized accordingly as referencesfor future translation studies and practices.