| Language, culture and translation are closely related. Translation is a bridge of different languages and cultures; language is the carrier of culture. Therefore, successful translation needs not only the good command of two languages, but the knack of two cultures. In 1990, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere came up with that translation studies show up the “culture turn” and put forward that translation is both language transcoding and culture transfer. Accordingly, translation shifts from linguistic translation to language and culture translation. In the process of translation, the translator will resort to domestication and foreignization translation strategies to achieve successful translation because of different language systems and cultural patterns. Therefore, domestication and foreignization aroused wide debate, being a hot topic for scholars.The representative of domestication is Nida, who puts forward Functional Equivalence Theory and advocates that the translation should be easy to be understood and close to the readers; the representative of foreignization is Venuti, who proposes Foreignization Theory and advocates retaining the foreign flavor of original.This thesis takes the English version Red Sorghum as a research text to analyze the application of domestication and foreignization from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory and Foreignization Theory. The reasons are as follows: after Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, his works have been given more attention as well as the translated versions. Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu is his first masterpiece and the English version Red Sorghum translated by Howard Goldblatt got high praise in English countries.Good translation cannot be separated from proper translation strategies. Translation is not only exchange of different languages, but also communication of different cultures.Therefore, the author uses domestication and foreignization to analyze the English version Red Sorghum from both language and culture aspects.This thesis consists of six parts, including introduction and conclusion. It begins with an introduction to the whole thesis with the purpose, significance and structure of the whole study. Chapter one is the literature review which states the concepts and relationships among language, culture and translation; relevant research on domestication and foreignization at home and abroad; research on Mo Yan’s Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu and Howard Goldblatt’s Red Sorghum. Chapter two is the theoretical foundation and methodology. It first introduces the definition, origin, advantages and limitations of domestication and foreignization and the relationship between them. Then Nida’s Functional Equivalence Theory and Venuti’s Foreignization Theory are presented, whichare the theoretical foundation of domestication and foreignization. And then methodology is discussed. Chapter three is the main body which gives a case study on Red Sorghum. It first introduced MoYan and Hong Gao Liang Jia Zu and Howard Goldblatt and Red Sorghum, then the research is done on linguistic and cultural levels of domestication and foreignization in detail. Chapter four comes to the findings, limitations, suggestions and the implications. In the end, this thesis makes a summary that both domestication and foreignization are effective translation strategies to successful translation. Translators should select proper translation strategies and accordingly achieve a balance between the two strategies.This thesis may be useful for a further study of the Red Sorghum and domestication and foreignization. The author hopes that it can enrich the study of translation strategies as well as deepen our understanding of Red Sorghum. |
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