Foreignization: An Effective Strategy In Cultural Transfer In Literary Translation

This thesis is mainly about translation strategies used in literary translation. The discussion is centered on two English versions of Hong Lou Meng: A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang (The writer uses "the Yangs" in the main body of this thesis), and The Story of The Stone translated by David Hawkes and John Minford (The writer uses "Hawkes" in the main body of the thesis). The reason for the writer to choose literary translation as the object of discussion is that literary works contain many cultural elements that are unique to a country or a nation. It is because of the existence of many cultural elements that literary translation draws more attention from many translators as well as many readers. And also because of the existence of cultural elements literary translation is considered not only as the exchange between two languages but also as the exchange between two cultures.Language and culture are inseparable. No language can exist without the context of culture; and no culture can exist without having natural language as its center (Bassnnet, 2004: 22). Translation occurring between two languages cannot be done or studied without regard of its cultural context. Translation is a cross-cultural practice. One of its main purposes is to develop cultural exchange. So to properly translate the cultural elements inliterary works is an important part of literary translation.It is commonly agreed that there are two strategies in dealing with cultural elements in translation: foreignization and domestication. Foreignization is source-culture oriented, while domestication is target-culture oriented. Which one is more appropriate? For many years people have not reached an agreement on this point. Studied and compared from different perspectives, the relationship between these two strategies can be very different. The writer chooses a perspective of cultural transfer to study these two strategies and draws a conclusion that foreignization is more effective in cultural transfer. The study and analysis are based on the analysis of a large amount of examples from the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng. But to advocate foreignization does not exclude the use of domestication. Domestication is necessary for certain types of texts, for a certain group of readers with little knowledge of the source language and culture and for some contents that cannot be understood or will cause misunderstandings if translated by foreignization. In other words, domestication is a necessary supplementary method to foreignization.In summary, the elements that influence the choice of foreignization fall into two aspects: cultural and non-cultural. Cultural elements include that foreignization can satisfy the readers' need to know foreign cultures and canbetter avoid cultural loss. Non-cultural elements include that foreignization fits the principle of faithfulness and fits the aim of literary translation.The advocacy of foreignization sets higher standard for the translators. They are not only mediators between two languages but also mediators between two cultures. Thus they are supposed to not only have a good command of the two languages involved in translation but also have a good understanding of the two cultures.