A Study Of Domestication And Foreignization In The English-Chinese Rendering Of Children's Literature From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

When referring to domestication and foreignization,the question,which translation strategy should enjoy a higher status in the field of translation,arouses widespread concern.Scholars hold different opinions toward this dispute,which has also aroused widespread concern in the field of translating children's literature.This thesis aims to approach this question from the perspective of Adaptation Theory and to investigate how domestication and foreignization are employed in the translation of children's literature.The data used in this study is extracted from the Harry Potter series and the translated texts.Composed of seven books,the Harry Potter series were published between 1997 and 2007.The Chinese version,translated by Su Nong,Ma Aixin and Ma Ainong,was published by People's Literature Publishing House from 2000 to 2009 respectively.Methodologically,data-based qualitative analysis has been adopted in this study.Data analysis reveals that foreignization prevails over domesticating translation strategy in dealing with cultural associations and references.Domestication,on the other hand,gets the upper hand in dealing with linguistic structure.The most striking employment of domestication lies in the wide use of four-character structures and idioms which prevails in Chinese culture.Data analysis also suggests that,in addition to the cultural factors,linguistic principles exert a fairly profound influence on the use of domestication and foreignization.Additionally,knowledge of children and their acceptability towards foreign culture render domestication popular.One point that deserves noting is there is a flexible employment of these two translation strategies though one of them plays a major role in one chapter.In other words,these two translation strategies sometimes work collaboratively in one chapter,even in one sentence.On the basis of the major findings in data analysis,it can be concluded that although one of these two translation strategies plays a major role in one chapter,they cannot be isolated from each other in translation.Additionally,domestication and foreignization cannot be employed randomly,for linguistic principles are influentialto the employment of them.The major contribution of this study lies in the fact that it broadens the scope of studying domestication and foreignization,and strengthens the study of translating the Harry Potter series from a systematical orientation that includes both linguistic and cultural perspectives.This undoubtedly provides a fresh insight for adopting domestication and foreignization in the translation of children's literature.