A Tentative Analysis Of Cultural Default In Hongloumeng And Its Translation

Cultural default is defined as the absence of relevant background knowledge shared by the writer and his intended readers. According to the Reception Aesthetics theory, the occurrence of cultural default in a text can stimulate the readers' imagination, increase the communicative efficiency between the writer and the readers, and hence strengthen the aesthetic effect of the text. But in translation, cultural default of the original texts often turns out to be a tough nut to crack due to the difference of cultures. This paper takes cultural default in the Chinese classic novel entitled Hongloumeng(The Dream of Red Mansions) as the focus of the discussion with the purpose of finding the best way to deal with cultural default in literary translation.This thesis mainly consists of five chapters.Chapter one is an introduction. First of all, the necessity of the research is pointed out based on the inextricable connection among language, culture and translation. In the view of the close relationship between language and culture, translation is inevitably an inter-cultural activity, rather than a simple process of inter-lingual transference. The discussion of translation of texts with cultural default can help us resolve cultural translation problems better, thus enhancing cultural communication.Chapter two makes an overall analysis of cultural default from the aspects of its definition, mechanism of formation, values----communicative and aesthetic value.Chapter three concerns the classifications of cultural default in Hongloumeng on the basis of the cultural categories.Chapter four endeavors to systematically explore the translation strategies and methods of cultural default. The present author first sets out discussing two translation strategies----foreignization and domestication, and then analyzes the four perspectives including, the style of the source text, aesthetics of cultural default, cultural communication and reader's subjective initiative in reading, thereby stressing on the foreignization applied to the translation of cultural default in literary works. The present author also sums up four translation methods commonly used in translation practices, namely, literal translation, literal translation with footnotes, literal translation with contextual explanation based on foreiginzation strategy and free translation which belongs to domestication strategy. The pertinence of each is fully discussed.Chapter five is the conclusion. The present author finally concludes that the translation of cultural default in literary works should apply foreignization in the first place and domestication as a supplementary choice. Moreover the method of literal translation with footnotes is the most effective way to reproduce the original aesthetic value and facilitate cultural communication.