Research On Lawrence Venuti's Translation Theory And On Its Acceptance In China

The form and meaning of a text are no longer the most important elements of some scholars'translation discussion ever since the cultural turn of translation studies. More attention has been increasingly paid to external language factors such as political, economical, cultural factors or even power. New dimensions of translation studies have been explored. Apart from the linguistic school and literary school, there has appeared cultural school in translation studies with new theories, like feminism translation theory and post colonism translation theory being developed. Among them the foreignizing translation theory by Lawrence Venuti, an American Italian translator, is becoming another focus.The point of this thesis is to go through the development of the theory and elaborate the author's main viewpoints; to give a brief introduction of its acceptance in China and make an analysis on the misunderstanding of the theory; and to make a comparison between Venuti's foreignizing translation theory and the traditional one.The first two chapters focus on the theoretical background and the historical source. In Chapter Three has traced the theoretical development by an analysis of Venuti's main works. Chapter Four gives a full elaboration of the key viewpoints including"the translator's invisibility","foreignizing translation","ethics of difference", and"symptomatic reading"etc. And Chapter Five makes a brief summary of the acceptance of Venuti's foreignizing translation theory and an analysis on some misunderstandings of the theory, e.g. some grouping it into deconstruction theory and others taking it as the same to the traditional foreignizing translation.In the conclusion, it is pointed out that Venuti's foreignizing translation theory evolves from a unique cultural background. However, it might have to go through some localization process before it becomes applicable for the translation studies in China. The application and study of the theory shall be based on an accurate understanding of our own culture in view of the actual development of translation in China.The research done in this thesis is limited, but the expectation is that it could be helpful for other scholars to explore this theory more profoundly.