Domestication And Foreignization In Literary Translation

One of the most significant features of contemporary translation theories is the orientation towards cultural rather than linguistic transference. Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere regard this "cultural return" as " a momentous step" (Lefevere &Bassnett, 1992: 4)in the field of translation study. Generally speaking, there are two basic strategies that deal with cultural elements involved in translation: domestication and foreignization.The debate over domestication and foreignization has lasted for centuries and still besets the translators today. Their relationship is always the central issue of translation studies. This dissertation will make a tentative study on them.The translator's choice between domestication and foreignization is constrained by many factors: the cultural disparity, the cultural tradition, the readers, the subjectivity of the translator, etc. Domestication and foreignization are of different essences and have different rules of application. After a careful analysis, the dissertation reveals that these two strategies have their own advantages and limitations and that the advocacy of either domestication or foreignization as the sole strategy is unavoidably one-sided and biased. They both are indispensable and they usually supplement each other with one as the primary strategy and the other as the secondary. The translator should bear in mind Lu Xun's words, "One purpose is to make the translated text intelligible, the other to keep the spirit and manner of the original" (鲁迅, 1984 : 246).The dissertation falls into seven parts: Chapter 1 is the introduction which gives an overall view of what is going to be discussed; Chapter 2 is a brief review of the debates over domestication and foreignization; Chapter 3 presents an investigation of the factors circumscribing the decision-making process; Chapter 4 is devoted to an analysis into domestication; Chapter 5 serves as a careful analysis of foreignization; Chapter 6 focuses on the relationship between domestication and foreignization; and at the end of this dissertation comes the conclusion.