On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In Lu Hsun's Short Novels

With the rapid development of economic and political exchanges in the world, cultural communication becomes more and more important. Translation is an important device in cross-cultural communication. Translation studies are no longer limited to linguistic analysis and textual comparisons only. More and more attention has been paid to the cultural factors in translation. In fact, translation is not only a linguistic transformation but also a cultural transfer. And it should be able to undertake the task of 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. In the course of translating, one of the most difficult barriers is the translation of unique cultural elements. Culture-loaded words are the direct reflections of the unique feature of culture. The accurate rendering of them plays a crucial role in introducing the unique culture of a nation to the foreigners.There are abundant culture-loaded words in Lu Hsun's short novels. This is regarded as a striking feature of his works. In this thesis, the English version, Selected Stories of Lu Hsun, translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang is chosen as a case study. This thesis examines the treatment of culture-loaded words in this English version. The study aims to identify the strategies employed by the translators and further more to find out the proper strategy of culture-loaded words translation. Foreignization and domestication are two major translation strategies in dealing with problems arising from the differences and contradictions between the source language culture and the target language culture. In translation,domestication means removing all strangeness and foreignness of the source text and making the translation read like the original. Domestication is oriented towards the target language. Foreignization is the opposite approach. By applying this method the foreignness of the source language will be kept to the greatest possible extent and the translation will certainly read like a translation.Many translation examples of culture-loaded words are selected from the English version, Selected Stories of Lu Hsun. By using descriptive method, the writer analyzes these examples in detail and tries to identify the strategies employed by the translators. The other research method employed in this thesis is making comparisons between the source text and the target text. By means of this method the ratio of the loss and gain during the translation process can be revealed. By using these two methods combined with theoretical framework and the selected materials, the writer intends to sum up the strategies used in translation and further propose her own suggestions of revision.In this thesis, one central problem is expected to be solved in order to keep the cultural foreignness of the source text and consequently promote cultural transmission as well as resist cultural hegemony. That is, in what way or by using which strategy, foreignization or domestication, the culture-loaded words can be properly translated. The study of this will help to get more knowledge on the ways to translate culture-loaded words and expressions in literary works , hence make literary translation better serve the cross-cultural communication.It finally points out that under the circumstance of globalization, in order to introduce native culture to foreign countries and promote cultural communication, it is highly desirable for the translators to stick as close as possible to the source culture by employing the foreignization as the primary translation strategy. The thesis also suggests that in the practice of translation, translators can employ literal translation or transliteration with notes in the end or inside the works. The writer holds that literal translation or transliteration can help to preserve the foreignness of culture-loaded words and the notes can make detailed explanations and help foreign readers to fully understand these words and expressions. The notes can be put right behind the culture-loaded words if they are short, while the notes which are long should be put in the end of the translated text in case of disturbing the reading consistency of readers.At the very end of the thesis, the writer calls on all translators to pay more attention to cultural transfer and to make more contributions to the cause of cross-cultural communication.