Foreignization And Domestication In Translation Across Culture

Translation is like a bridge. There are different climax and scenery between the points of a bridge. People between the points of a bridge live differently in custom, language and culture. Translation is like a bridge which cross mountains and rivers between the points of a bridge. Translation is not only an interlingual activity but also an intercultural activity. Linguistic transference is only the surface of translation while culture exchange is the essence of translation.There exists a long-lasting controversy in translation field, that is, the debate between the strategy of foreignization and the strategy of domestication. In translation, a translator always faces a choice between adhering to the SL-culture-oriented or to the TL-culture-oriented. Whether a piece of translation work should be SL-culture-oriented or TL-culture-oriented? This remains an unsettled question as well as the center of debate in the translation field. L. Venuti advocates foreignizing translation whereas Eugene A. Nida advocates domesticating translation.The thesis researches strategies in translation across culture. That is foreignization and domestication. The thesis consists of five chapters in body.The first chapter analyzes the relationship between culture and translation. It points out the relative translatabiljty of culture, culture differences between the west and the east, cultural function of translation and the concept of cultural translation.The second chapter expounds foreignization strategy and domestication strategy in detail. It includes the origin and definition of foreignization and domestication, and the representative advocate and advocacy of foreignization and domestication.The third chapter discusses the factors conditioning the choice of strategies in translation from macro level and micro level. There are five factors at macro level. That is types of source texts, groups of readership,ideology of the translator, the translator's intention, contrast between the source language culture and the target language culture. There are three factors at micro level. That is context, pragmatic consideration and basic genius of the target language.The fourth chapter analyzes the relationship between the Chinese cultural status and the translation strategies. I think more foreignization results from a weaker Chinese culture and more domestication results from a stronger Chinese culture. Foreignization strategy and domestication strategy are restricted by culture deeply and are changed according to culture status variation.In chapter five, it shows the application of foreignization and domestication strategies taken culturally-loaded lexemes as examples. At first, it defines and classifies culturally-loaded lexemes, then the concrete examples are shown on how to translate culturally-loaded lexemes by using foreignization and domestication strategies. In the thesis there are transliteration, literal translation, borrowing, literal translation with explanation and literal translation with annotation methods by using foreignization approach. There are free translation, simplification, substitution and paraphrasing translation methods by employing domestication approach.In a word, the thesis discusses the application of foreignization strategy and domestication strategy under the different situations taken culturally-loaded lexemes as examples. In translating not only information of the source text should be transferred accurately but also foreigness and flavor of source text should be retained as much as possible in order to obtain higher culture communication.