Foreignization And Domestication

Cultural translation has always been attracting the attention of scholars both at home and abroad. Recently, how to transfer and spread Chinese culture through translation has already become translators' concern. Hong Lou Meng, as the epitome of the feudal Chinese society, boasts of rich and enormous life and cultural contexts, extraordinary depth of thoughts, consummate writing skills, and unique artistic and aesthetic values. All these, however, pose great challenges to translators. In terms of cultural elements, quite different translating methods are employed to render them. However, most of current translation theories focus on the readership between culture and translation at the macro level, providing limited help to the practice of cultural translation.The Skopos Theory was proposed in as early as 1970s. Unlike traditional translation theories, it only regards the source text as an information provider. During translation, the translator selects the information for translation to fulfill the translation purpose and meet the target readers' needs in accordance with the commissioners' requirements. The theory holds that the purpose of the translation determines the whole translation process and the translation methods and strategies to be employed, which will, in turn, contribute to the achievement of the intended purpose. This theory has provided us with a new perspective in translation practice. However, it was not introduced to Chinese translators until recently and few cultural translations have been discussed within the framework of the Skopos Theory.This thesis is an attempt at exploring the validity of the strategies for translating cultural elements in Hong Lou Meng with reference to the Yangs' and Hawkes' versions. Discussing the relationship between culture and translation at the beginning, the author of this thesis introduces the development of the two basic translation strategies, foreignization and domestication, and different views held about them, especially in terms of translating culture-loaded information. After that, the author makes a synoptic description of the development of the Skopos Theory. Then a brief comparison is made between the the Yangs' and Hawkes' translation of some of typical Chinese cultural elements in Hong Lou...