A Study Of Translation Strategies From The Postcolonical Perspective

As a new school of translation studies, the postcolonial translation theory originated from the 1980s. By putting the translated version in the specific historical, cultural and political background, the theory tries to expose the cultural differentials and power struggles hidden behind the translation, and then dispels the pervasive cultural hegemony in the cultural communication between the strong English-speaking countries and the wide third world.In postcolonial context, translation plays a great role in establishing the cultural identity. Through different strategies, the linguistic differentials between the cultures that the translation involves are either respectfully retained or mercilessly written off. Generally speaking, when a hegemonic culture translates the works written by the dominated culture, domestication will be a primary strategy. The method is adopted to weaken the linguistic and cultural differences between the source language and the target language, with the aim to impose the hegemonic intervention and domination over the underprivileged culture. On the contrary, foreignizing translation tries to make a resistance to the cultural oppression by retaining the cultural differences. However, more and more scholars raise queries about the view of the effect that domestication and foreignization produce in the practical translation activity.The thesis will take Ku Hungming's English version of Lun Yu as example to probe into the translation strategies of domestication and foreignization from the postcolonial perspective. The classic work of Confucianism Lun Yu has widespread and profound influence on Chinese or even the whole Asian cultural system. Ku Hungming was a celebrated scholar and translator in the beginning of the 20th century, and was considered as the spokesman of the Oriental culture at that time. Ku's English version of. Lun Yu broke the monopoly of Chinese classic translation made only by western missionaries and sinologists, and attracted wide-ranging attention from the West.At that time, the Qing Government and the people endured the western hegemony and oppression on political, economic and cultural level. Under such a situation, Ku decided to translate Lun Yu to English with the aim of reestablishing a positive image of the Chinese culture in the West. However, he adopted the domesticating strategy and met the reading habits of western readers throughout the translation. The thesis attempts to put Ku's English version in the specific background, and applies the postcolonial translation theory concerning culture differentials and power struggles to the study of his application of domestication and its far-reaching impact on the western society. The thesis hopes to prove that in the translation studies, besides the translated text itself, the external factors such as the background of the translation, the translator's cultural identity, and the influence that the translated version exerts on the target language should also be taken into consideration. Domestication and foreignization are not absolutely opposed to each other. Domesticating translation does not always be the accessory of cultural hegemonism. Under specific occasion, it also can be an effective tool for establishing the positive image of the dominated culture and winning the widespread understanding from the dominant West.