Venuti's Foreignization Translation Strategy In The Background Of Cultural Context

According to the traditional translation theory, the meaning of the original is univocal, unchanging even if the context of the text has altered. Thus a static understanding of translation prevailed in both Western and Chinese translation history. However, it was not until the rise of Deconstruction theory in the 1960s did such an understanding of translation begin to be doubted and challenged. Deconstructionists hold the viewpoint that the meaning is a plural and contingent relation, instead of an unchanging unified essence. Moreover, the original text is the site of many semantic possibilities whose meaning is only fixed provisionally in one translation. Thus, both the original and the translation are derivative, containing materials beyond the expectation and intentions of the original author and the translator. Basing on the deconstruction and post-colonial theory, the Italian-American translation theorist Lawrence Venuti constructively put forward his foreignization strategy.Considering the fact that the present translation theory is confined to pure language study, so how to reflect the translation study from the cultural context has great meaning. Just as Wang Ning says, the cultural transference of translation will not only fill in a gap in this field but also provide some achievements for our discussion with foreign translation researchers.[1]So in the cultural context and cultural diversity, the translators should adapt and fully utilize this situation. And we should introduce the gorgeous cultural treasures into English, making more people have an understanding of Chinese culture. Thus, in the process of translation, the translators should retain the Chinese characteristics and adopt foreignization strategy. However, the foreignization strategy has also some limitations. Based on the analysis of the limitation, the author put forward some new solving methodologies according to the type of the text and the readership of the author in the background of cultural context.This thesis consists of six parts. The first chapter is introduction. In the second chapter, the author diachronically introduces deconstruction, which is the theoretical basis of Lawrence Venuti's foreignization. In the third chapter, the author illustrates the definition of culture context and the relationship among language, culture and translation. Because the fact that language is the carrier of culture, so it is important to transmit the culture information in the process of translation. The foutth chapter is the main body of this thesis. Through the analysis of the different version of Hongloumeng, the author put forward some advantages of foreignization strategy in the intercultural perspective which laid a profound foundation for the future translation studies. The fifth chapter mainly discusses the demerits of the foreignization strategy and put forward the corresponding solving methodology. The last chapter is conclusion.