On Foreignization And Domestication From A Historical View

Due to its unique background, every language has its own characteristics closely related to its history, geography, religion and custom. Translation, as a bridge between different cultures and languages, contributes significantly to cultural exchange and diffusion. Generally speaking, there are two principal strategies to deal with linguistic and cultural differences, namely, domestication and foreignization. Whether to adopt domestication, keeping readability and readers'acceptance in mind, or to adopt foreignization, retaining the cultural aspects in ST, is the matter in question. In the translation field, these two strategies have aroused many scholars'interests and debates over the two strategies seem endless.From a historical point of view, the author of this dissertation focuses on how the choice between foreignization and domestication changes in the long translation history of Hong Lou Meng. The dissertation makes a comparative study of three English versions of Hong Lou Meng in three periods of the translation of Hong Lou Meng. They are Bencraft Joly's version, Florence and Isabel McHugh's version and David Hawkes's version.In the first chapter, the thesis surveys the Hong Lou Meng arguments and the status quo of researches concerning domestication and foreignization at home and abroad. Next is a brief introduction of Hong Lou Meng and its translation history. And then the author discusses the three chosen versions taken from different periods, including the translators'Skopos and the Hong Lou Meng background of these three versions. Later, the dissertation makes a comparison of the application of foreignization and domestication by analyzing some typical examples from the three English versions. Finally, the dissertation concludes that the choice between domestication and foreignization changes constantly in the translation history of Hong Lou Meng. In different periods, translators'Skopos, readers'expectation, and publishing houses'demands all influence the choice between domestication and foreginization. The author thinks that each of these two translation strategies has its own application value in a certain period of time and the comparison of these two strategies should involve the Hong Lou Meng elements to be more objective.