A Research Report On The Translation Of Yu Dafu’s Short Story "the Past" From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

The translation of literary works has been playing a significant role in worldeconomic and cultural communication, with the advancement of globalization andinformation era, as well as the frequent cultural communication among countries.Literary translation is an important kind of translation. It is a kind of aestheticrecreation based on its original work. It holds a crucial position in today’s economicsociety. It consists of novel, drama, poetry and prose. Among of them, novelstranslation occupies an important status.As the theory of literary translation, domestication and foreignization are alwaysinescapable options and challenges for translators, experts at home and abroad. As themain body of literary translation, translators have a conclusive function during thewhole process of translation art activity. They are the core of translation process,because they are not only receiver and passer, but also proofer. The characteristic andpurpose of literary translation bring about a number of problems for translators. Thetranslators are always faced with the choices between domestication andforeignization or their combination in terms of either text language itself or social,historical and cultural contents contained in the text. Consequently, the translatorsshould undertake a concrete analysis in accordance with specific conditions to reflecttheir different translation characteristics and purposes.This thesis firstly introduces the concept of literary translation, the differencesbetween literary translation and non-literary translation, the research of novelstranslation and also the content of Yu Dafu’ s short story “The Past”; secondly, thethesis summarizes the translation research, such as significance of choosing the topic,text selection and analysis, translation conditions and process; finally, the thesis aimsat making a generalization and summarization on the translation theory and practiceof its English version, coming up with advices and strategies for remaining problemsof its English version, as well as putting forward an idea that translators should makea concrete analysis based on specific conditions and use different translation theory and methods to conduct translation activities. Only in this way can translator find outthe optimum combination between domestication and foreignization.The thesis conducts an English translation practice on “The Past”, it aims atputting translation theory into practice during the process of Chinese-Englishtranslation, deepening the comprehensive understanding of theory, trainingtranslators’ translation competence and enhancing their translation levels. In addition,this thesis hopes to provide certain theory reference and practice support for numerousMTI literary translation fans, and to contribute its thorough efforts for the spread anddevelopment of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture.