A Critical Analysis Of Venuti's Translation Theory

In recent years, translators have become more aware of the importance of cultural communication and transmission and have paid more attention to Venuti's translation theory. Venuti has criticized and challenged the dominant domesticating translation, and, what is more, he has advocated foreignizing translation strategy to resist fluency.First, this thesis reviews Venuti's translation theory in detail. Venuti uses the term "invisibility" to describe the translator's situation and activity in contemporary Anglo-American culture and demystify transparency. He claims that the traditional fluent and domesticating translation is a kind of ethnocentric violence and cultural imperialism. He puts forward that foreignizing translation in English can be a form of resistance against the ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism. He advocates foreignizing translation in opposition to the Anglo-American tradition of domestication, aiming to develop a theory and practice of translation that resists dominant target-language cultural values so as to signify the linguistic and cultural differences of the foreign text. Next, in tracing the history of translation, the thesis explains how Venuti formulates his translation theory. At last, the thesis makes a critical analysis of Venuti's translation theory, pointing out its contributions and limitations.The aim of the thesis is to give some assistance to Chinese translation studies by making the critical analysis of Venuti's translation theory. Venuti's foreignizingtranslation not only resists the domesticating translation, but also promotes the cultural communication and transmission between the two countries by reflecting the foreignness of the source text. It is very helpful to China's translation studies in its cultural function. However, it should be pointed put that Venuti's foreignizing translation is, to some degree, extreme. He regards translation as a political and cultural practice, and he opposes inscribing the foreign text with the target-language cultural values. Chinese translators should pay attention to its cultural function instead of political one. And when applying this foreignizing strategy, translators should take into account the intelligibility of the target readers and text types. To emphasize foreignizing translation does not mean to replace domesticating translation. When foreignizing translation does not work, domesticating translation is still necessary.With the frequent cultural communication between countries and the globalization process, Venuti's foreignizing translation will play an important role in facilitating cultural communication and it will be an irreversible trend in the 21st century. However, its limitations cannot be ignored.