Foreignization And Retaining Cultural Diversity In Source Language

This thesis is mainly about the necessity and feasibility of retaining cultural diversity in source language in translation practice from the perspective of cultural exchange. Translation is not only transformation between two different symbols, but also, and more importantly, a link between two cultures. And it should be able to undertake the task as to the cultural exchange and communication. A translator, as a "cultural messenger", should not only precisely transfer the linguistic information involved in the source language, but also introduce the "cultural diversity" or "foreignness" in the source language to the target language readers.The writer attaches great importance to the preservation of the cultural diversity or foreignness as far as possible in the practice of literary translation. It is claimed that translation aims at cultural communication, which implies that to help people of different language communities gain access to foreign culture is one of the basic tasks of translation. From this point of view, we can say that in translation we should retain the original cultural messages as much as possible.In this thesis, the writer also explains in detail foreignizing strategy from its theoretical basis to its advantages in the translating practice and points out that in translating literary works, foreignizing strategy should be preferred to domesticating strategy. She then furthers this thesis by discussing in detail the necessity and feasibility of retaining cultural diversity in source language and comes to the conclusion that it is essential to retain cultural diversity in literary translation. In addition, the writer puts forward several methods in tackling the trans-cultural communication problem. However, the writer also points out that over-foreignizaion is not what she intends to advocate in this thesis. TL readers play an important part in determining to what extent literary works can and should be translated.