The Influence Of Power On Translation Strategies From Perspective Of Post-colonialism

“Cultural turn” makes translation study no longer limit itself to the study ofwords and sentences, but turn to studies translation from social, cultural, historicaland political aspects.“Power turn” became the most important part of translation’scultural study in the past few years. According to the Power and Discourse theoryput forward by French philosopher Michel Foucault, the human society is filledwith power. As a kind of social activity, translation can not be merely seen as ameans of transmitting language between texts, but an activity manipulated bypowers. Translation activity, subject selection and the application of translationstrategies are all influenced by powers in one way or another. Translators are alsoinfluenced by powers, and even serve the authorities of a country.The study of translation strategies has always been one of the most importantparts in translation studies. As for the selection of translation strategies, debatesabout this issue have never stopped in translation circles. Accompanied by thedevelopment of translation theory and practice, debates have changed fromlinguistic aspect to cultural aspect. The surveys showed that all of the debatesabout the choosing of traditional translation strategies are based on the dualistictheory, which caused the polarization of using translation strategies.Based on translation’s power study, post-colonial translation study putstranslation into the international political and cultural context, which highlightsthe translation’s political and cultural functions. Western culture now dominatesthe weak cultures such as cultures from the third world. In such a situation,Chinese culture and literature needs to both dispel the cultural invasion fromwestern culture and meet the challenge of globalization as well. As an importantway of transmitting culture, translation has its own advantages and disadvantages. In terms of our native culture’s preservation and development, post-colonialtranslation theories bring us more inspiration. Hybridization strategy, whichconforms to the objective requirements of globalization and economic integration,can perfectly resist cultural invasion from powerful culture and preserve nationalculture. Therefore, the choice of hybridization strategy is inevitable, and also abeneficial attempt to solve the debates about traditional translation strategies.Based on Power and Discourse theory, this thesis analyzes how powersinfluence translation activity, subject selection and most importantly, the selectionof translation strategies. Then this thesis analyzes the debates of traditionaltranslation strategies under the guidance of post-colonial translation theories. Atlast, by comparing traditional translation strategies with hybridization strategyfrom perspective of post-colonialism, this thesis demonstrates the advantages andinevitability of using hybridization strategy in today’s translation study andpractice. This thesis is a supplementary study of translation’s power study andpost-colonial translation study.This thesis mainly consists of four parts:The first chapter describes the objective and meaning of this researchgenerally.The second chapter reviews Michel Foucault’s Power and Discourse theoryand translation study’s “power turn”. At the same time, the debates of traditionaltranslation strategies, post-colonial translation studies and Homi�'Bhabha’shybridization are reviewed.The third chapter mainly analyzes how powers influence translation activityand translation strategies. In human society, power has a variety of existenceforms; the thesis intends to analyze the four of them in particular. By exploringthe impact of powers over translation strategies, the thesis concludes that powersmanipulate the selection of translation strategies, and translation strategies servethe upper class.The fourth chapter analyzes the debates of traditional translation strategies,and introduces hybridization strategy from perspective of post-colonialism. On thebasis of the previous studies, this thesis points out that the aim of translation is topromote cultural communication, not invading other cultures. While according topost-colonial translation theory, there are power differentials in translation.Therefore, on the basis of post-colonial translation theories, this chapter mainly focuses on the advantages of using hybridization strategy by analyzing Chineseliterary works such as the translation of Three Kingdoms and a Dream in RedMansions. With substantial examples provided, the use of hybridization strategycan balance the power differential, which is good for dispelling and resistingcultural invasion. Moreover, it’s also good for preserving and developing our ownculture.