Translation Strategies In Lin Yutang's Translation Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

Domestication and foreignization are methods adopted by a translator to deal with the two basic problems in translation: linguistic incompatibility and cultural differences. At the macro level, translation strategies are determined by translation purpose, historical context, the expectations of readership, type of the source text and other factors. Lin Yutang's translation theory is closely connected with his life philosophy and translation purpose. Lin selects those works of Chinese classical literature which best represent Chinese culture to translate and he adopts both domestication and foreignization skillfully to introduce Chinese culture to the West. Domestication and foreignization are both indispensable and supplementary to each other in the process of translation. When a translator introduces Chinese culture to English readers, he must first take the translated version's readability into consideration. The version should conform to the target language norms as much as possible. Since the acceptability is the primary concern, translators have to think twice in the choice of a source text and the specific translation strategy. If the literary works of a comparatively weak culture are to be accepted by a stronger culture, they should not be in radical contradiction with the target norms, and should fulfill target readers' expectations of the source culture, and meet the psychological needs of the target society.With the aim of shedding light on how to translate Chinese classics and culture, this thesis probes the translation strategies that Lin Yutang adopts to translate Six Chapters of a Floating Life. Through the detailed analysis of the translated version, this thesis concludes that in terms of sentence structure and linguistic features, priority should be given to domesticating strategy; when dealing with literary style, foreignization is not only necessary but also possible. Foreignizing strategy is also applicable for retaining cultural information of...