A Study Of Cultural Translation

It is commonly acknowledged that language is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.It constitutes the most distinctive feature of a culture,which may be described in a simplistic manner as the totality of the beliefs and practices of a society.Undoubtedly,a language is not only a major part of culture,but also the main carrier of it.It is indispensable for both the functioning and the perpetuation of culture. Accordingly,competent translators are always aware that ultimately words only have meanings in terms of the corresponding culture.Thus, translation is not only a shift of language,but also a communication of culture.Because of differences of culture,people are so accustomed to their own ways of doing things that they may have different explanations to the same expressions.Therefore,translators have to make some adjustments and compensation in translating in order to make translated texts fully understood by target readers.Eugene Nida states firmly that "for truly successful translating,biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism".Naturally,cultural translation becomes a key subject in Translation Studies.My thesis consists of five chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.The confusion concerning the use of the term "cultural translation" is discussed in the Introduction and a definition is suggested.Cultural translation refers to cross-cultural translation in its broad sense and the influence of culture on translation,including translating cultural factors in its narrow sense.Chapter 1 is a survey of major views on cultural translation in China and the West.The survey shows that all scholars discuss translation methods and strategies on the basis of their understanding of the source culture and the target culture.Chapter 2 discusses three aspects of cultural translation,namely social manipulation,linguistic form and culture-specific expressions.Chapter 3 expounds my views on foreignization and domestication, which are discussed in linguistic and cultural aspects.Based on the general function of translation and the history of translation theory and practice in China and the West,this chapter argues that domestication is a main translation strategy and that foreignizing expressions can develop into domesticating expressions in the course of time.Chapter 4 tries to make a tentative study of hybridity of translation in terms of language and culture and argues that hybridity,(including overt and covert hybridity) which is a normal result of communication between two languages and cultures,reflects the nature of translation and builds a tension in target context to promote the development of the target language and culture. Chapter 5 explores foreignization and domestication in poetry translation guided by Nida's theory of functional equivalence.The structural and cultural differences between Chinese and English make it difficult to translate poetry from one language into another.It argues that a good translated poem is mainly decided according to the features of poetry in the target language and that the imitation or the reproduction of the form of the source text should be in the limitation of target language grammar.From a TL reader's angle,this chapter holds that poetry translation is by and large a process of striking a dynamic balance between translating and not translating in terms of content and form in order to transmit the aesthetic effect of the SL text to the greatest extent.In the conclusion,cultural translation and cultural translation studies are discussed in globalization context.We insist that domestication is still a main strategy in the future and that our cultural translation studies should be based on Chinese traditional culture...