A Comparative Analysis Of Connotations Of Domestication And Foreignization In Different Times

What translation strategy is employed by the translator to deal with cultural differences? And what factors determine the translator's choice of translation strategy? Centered upon these two issues, this thesis applies Venuti's theory of domestication and foreignization and Lefevere's hypothesis on ideology and poetics to making a research on the theme of translation and culture.From the synchronic (roughly at the turn of the 20th century) and diachronic (during the period from the late 19th century till the late 20th century) perspectives, taking ideology as a starting point, this thesis makes a detailed comparative analysis in the form of case studies of domesticating and foreignizing translation employed by the translators of the translated works at home and abroad, so as to explore the cultural connotations of domestication and foreignization during the particular historical periods.By carrying out the analysis with specific examples, this thesis argues that the connotations of domestication and foreignization bear a marked brand of the times and have been undergoing a process of transformation: in the first stage, during the postcolonial period, domestication has been dominant in translation practice and its connotation is obviously "ethnocentrism"; in the second stage, with globalization being underway, domestication is second in importance to foreignization which tends to taking the lead now and in future, accordingly, "ethnocentrism" of domestication is greatly weakened while "egalitarianism" of foreignization is enhanced; in the third stage, as a result of cultural globalization, the connotation of domestication shows a tendency to develop into "egalitarianism", hence, the connotations of domestication and foreignization will become the same.In addition, this thesis also reveals the influence of ideology on translation, hoping that it will contribute to further studies on the theme of translation and culture.