On The Translation Of Vulgarisms In Shui Hu Zhuan From A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Vulgarisms in literature have long been ignored due to their nature of rudeness and impoliteness, not to mention the translation research of them. However, as an organic component of language, vulgarisms are of great academic and practical importance. The present study tries to approach the translation of Chinese and English vulgarisms within the framework of the theory of hybridity from a cross-cultural perspective. It first introduces Chinese and English definitions of vulgarism, and then classifies Chinese and English vulgarisms into three categories according to their degree of cultural vacancy, i.e. vulgarisms of zero vacancy, vulgarisms of partial vacancy and vulgarisms of complete vacancy. In order to work out the possible solutions to the translation of vulgarisms with cultural vacancy, the author takes Shui Hu Zhuan and its two English versions All Men are Brothers and Outlaws of the Marsh by Pearl S. Buck and Sidney Shapiro respectively for a case study.With the development of cross-cultural communication, it is increasingly recognized that hybridity is the necessary result of cultural communication and is inevitable in translation. After the analysis of the translations of the vulgarisms in Shui Hu Zhuan, the present study finds that the translations are all hybrid texts to different degrees. Buck and Shapiro both combine domestication with foreignization rather than adopt only one of them in their own translations.Hybridity in the group of zero vacancy is the lowest because of the least cultural vacancy that the vulgarisms are loaded with. As for the translation of vulgarisms of partial vacancy, the two translators both take foreignization as the major strategy and domestication as a complementary supplement. As a result, maximum hybridity is displayed in the translations of the group. Yet on the whole Buck's translations have a higher degree of hybridity than Shapiro's in that in most cases she rigidly remains not only the cultural image and connotation of the source text but also the linguistic and sentential characteristics of it. For vulgarisms of complete vacancy, they adopt the domestication strategy in most cases. However, the translators still endeavor to apply foreignization to their translations. The combination of foreignization and domestication has not only made the translations more comprehensible for target readers but also added foreign flavor to their translations and promoted the communication between the source culture and target culture.In conclusion, hybridization of the two strategies effectively handles the problem of vulgarism translation and exerts a positive influence on Chinese and English cultural communication.