Study On Domestication And Foreignization In Translation

One of the most striking features in contemporary translation theories is the orientation towards cultural transfer rather than linguistic transfer. Generally speaking, there are two principal strategies to deal with culture involved in translation, namely, TL (target language) culture-oriented domestication and SL (source language) culture-oriented foreignization. Domestication means bringing the foreign culture closer to the reader in the target culture, making the target text recognizable and familiar to the readers. Foreignization, on the other hand, means taking the reader over to the source text and in turn to the foreign culture, making him or her see the differences. Because of the differences between the SL culture and the TL culture, a translator is bound to face a choice. So it is inevitable to have the inclination of domestication or foreignization for a translation. It is safe to say that the two translation strategies have always dominated the central place of translation studies.In this dissertation, a tentative study on them will be made from the historical arguments, analyze the advantages and limitations of them respectively and induce the factors that are likely to influence a translator's selection of translation strategies. Finally, we make a contrastive analysis of the two translation versions of Hong Lou Meng on this respect.There have been numerous debates on translation strategies in both China and abroad. In China, there were debates on translation of "wen" and "zhi" in the era of Buddhist translation, debates on "smoothness" and "faithfulness" in the 1930s, and later, there were debates on "resemblance in spirit" and "resemblance in form". In the West, Nida proposes the translation criterion of "functional equivalence", and advocates domesticating translation. Lawrence Venuti, however, proposes "resistanttranslation" strategy and advocates foreignizing translation.In these debates, people have been trying to reach a conclusion as to which translation strategy is better. In fact, they are the two sides of a coin. Their relationship is dialectic. Both of them have their own merits. So an excellent piece of translation is usually a fine combination of domestication and foreignization.There are many factors that are likely to influence a translator's selection of translation strategies. In this dissertation, we mainly focus on the text type, the translation purpose and the target readers.In the main part of this dissertation, we make a contrastive study on the two translation versions of the Chinese classical novel Hong Lou Meng. From the respects of three factors, we try to analyze the cause and effect of the domestication and foreignization. We not only point out the general inclinations of the two versions but also study the situation when the domestication and foreignization cross each other in the translation process. It is obvious that the two strategies have their own strength and weakness. The two versions have different translation purposes and different target readers to adapt to. As a translator, Yang's purpose is to introduce the Chinese culture to the western readers as much as possible. He regards the westerners who like to know about the Chinese culture as the target readers, so he adopts the SL culture-oriented principle, that is, foreignization translation. But Hawkes' purpose is obvious to attract the public, the ordinary western readers. His strategy is TL culture-oriented, that is, domesticating translation. For the western readers, who like to learn Chinese or to know about the Chinese traditional culture, it is very beneficial to read the Yang's version. For the ordinary western readers, they just entertain themselves through reading. So Hawkes' version is enough to satisfy them. In summary, due to the different translation purposes and different target readers, a translator has to follow thedifferent principles.Based on the above analysis, the dissertation points out that domestication and foreignization are two translation strategies that seem to be con...