Domestication And Foreignization Used In The Two English Versions Of Luotuo Xiangzh A Gontrastive Study

Literature is an art of language and literature translation is the reproduction of the art oflanguage, i.e., using the artistic form of another language to represent that of this language. LaoShe’s Luotuo Xiangzi is an outstanding work in China’s modern literature history. It has beentranslated into many languages since it was published and there have been many translatedversions. Among them the most striking versions are Camel Xiangzi translated by the famousChinese translator Shi Xiaojing and Rickshaw by the American translator Jean M. James.Because the two translators’ native languages are different, the translation strategies they adoptare also very different.Nowadays there are many research papers and comments on Chinese literature translationand the debate about domesticating and foreignizing translation strategies has continuedconstantly. The purpose of this thesis is not to distinguish which translation strategy has moreadvantages, but to explore the roles and effects brought about by domesticating and foreignizingstrategies during the course of representing the indigenous language and culture of the originaltext. It will make clear what kind of translation strategy tends to make the original have moreforeign readers and make the original culture spread more extensively.This study selects the two different English versions of a Chinese novel Luotuo Xiangzi asthe study object. They are respectively translated by a Chinese translator and an Englishtranslator. From the angles of words and sentences, discourse, and culture the study attempts toanalyze the two versions’ language features, translation strategies and expressive effects as wellas to explore the real factors determining the choice of translation strategies. The study showsthat the translator whose native language is the source language (SL) consistently tends to useforeignizing strategy so as to transfer the SL culture. But sometimes the translator is so familiarwith the original culture that he neglects some details and makes some omissions. For someidioms with strong cultural features which are difficult to express, the translator will also take thedomesticating strategy. While the translator whose mother tongue is the target language tends toadopt domesticating strategies to increase the readability and acceptability of the translation. Asa translator he will bring his creativity into full play, ignore and even intentionally abandon someunique national characteristics of the SL expressions. But sometimes he will also assume the roleof a culture emissary bravely and adopt the foreignizing strategy to represent and transplant theaesthetics of the SL expression into the translated text. Thus, in literary translation thetranslators’ linguistic background and cultural orientation will exert a significant impact on thefinal versions. This thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter One serves as the introduction, includingthe research question and purpose, research methodology and data collection as well as theorganization of the whole thesis. In Chapter Two, the author deals with the current state of thetranslation of Luotuo Xiangzi. Chapter Three is the theoretical framework about domesticationand foreignization. Chapter Four, as the main body of this thesis, conducts a contrastive study oftwo English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi. In the last part, the author concludes the main findingsof this thesis, and offers some proposals for further researches.The conclusion of this study is that domestication and foreignization are not two oppositesides conflicting with each other. In literary translation due to the various characteristics oflanguages and cultures, plus the translators’ background, the choice of either absolutedomestication or absolute foreignization is not advisable. From the synchronic and diachronicperspectives, the two strategies are relative to each other. In translating practices, these twostrategies appear to overlap with each other. In the actual translating operation the two translators,whose native languages are respectively the source language and target language, adopt thedomesticating and foreignizing methods with different proportion, therefore the translatingstrategies used in the two versions tend to be different. The diversity of translating strategiesshows that any kind of translation strategy is not perfect and the selection of translation strategiesis dynamic and keeps changing. The two strategies both have their values and can both playpositive roles in spreading traditional Chinese culture to the world.