Domestication And Foreignization In Cultural Translation

In 1990, Bassnett and Lefevere claimed that translation studies take the "cultural turn," pointing out that translation is not only language decoding, but also intercultural communication. Therefore, translation, as a whole, shifts from linguistic translation to cultural translation. In the process of cultural translation, the translator will inevitably encounter the problem of cultural differences, and has to resort to two translation strategies, namely, domestication and foreignization, to achieve successful translation.The representative of domestication is Nida, who advocates dynamic equivalence and easy-to-read translation to win good response among target readers. The representative of foreignization is Venuti, who appeals to retain the exotic cultural elements in translation to achieve successful intercultural communication.The taking of Cherie Blair's autobiography Speaking for Myself as an example is based on two reasons:firstly, it abounds in various cultural elements as the author classified in Chapter 1, and will be of certain influence in cultural communication; secondly, the author of this thesis was immensely engaged in the translation of the previous 27 chapters and thereby having the vantage point of combining practice with theory, which is of vital importance to translation studies.Chapter 1 expatiates on the relationship between language, culture and translation, classifying culture into three kinds:material culture, institutional culture and mental culture. Based on this classification, the author endeavors to review the concept of cultural translation and intercultural communication. Chapter 2 expounds the origin, definition and dispute of domestication and foreignization, the two translation strategies in cultural translation. Chapter 3 sets forth five factors influencing the actual choice of translation strategies. Chapter 4 is the case study of domestication and foreignization in the translation of Cherie Blair's autobiography Speaking for Myself.By the overall literature review and the detailed case study, this thesis comes to the following conclusion:the two translation strategies have their own merits and demerits, and the overemphasis of any one strategy is unscientific. We should view and study them dialectically and historically. In the actual process of translation, we are supposed to take context, purpose and text into full consideration and put the two translation strategies into alternate use to enhance the intercultural communication function of translation.