On The English Version Of Huozhe In Light Of Hybridity Theory

Hybridity refers to the phenomenon that two different parties communicate, fuse and then form a new party distinct from both of them. In the middle of 1990 s, Homi Bhabha borrowed this term into post-colonial studies, which has aroused great concern of western and Chinese translation scholars. Beverly Adab and Christina Schaffner propose explicitly the definition of hybrid text. Chinese scholar Han Ziman also applies the concept of hybridity into literary translation studies. As a translingual and transcultural communication activity, there will be inevitably hybridity phenomena of the source language culture and target language culture in translation. All translated texts are either domestication-oriented or foreignization-oriented hybrid texts. Hybridity provides a new perspective for the debate of domestication and foreignization in translation studies.As one of Yu Hua’s representative works, Huozhe won the Italy Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1998. The English version To Live, translated by Professor Michael Berry from the University of California, came out in 2003. Since its publication, To Live has received great reviews in western countries. The thesis studies the English version of Huozhe from the perspective of hybridity. It explores the hybridity phenomena from the linguistic and cultural aspects respectively.By means of detailed analysis, the author finds that the English version contains not only linguistic and cultural elements of English language but also quantities of linguistic and cultural elements of Chinese language, thus presenting hybrid features. In terms of translation strategy, the translator mainly adopts foreignization(transliteration, transliteration plus annotation, literal translation and literal translation plus annotation) to represent Chinese expressions and culture. Simultaneously, the translator employs domestication(free translation, substitution, omission) to ensure the acceptability of the translation. Based on the analysis of the English version, the thesis discusses the positive role of hybridity in cross-cultural communication. Hybridity with an appropriate degree can effectively spread the source language culture and enrich the target language culture. To some extent, it is conductive to resist cultural hegemony and promote equal communication among different cultures.