The “Viking Spirit” And “Domestication And Foreignization” In Literary Translation

A “pirate” is someone who plunders property from others at sea.As a symbol of culture and spirit,pirates are persistent in their beliefs,brave in fighting and daring to explore the unknown areas.They have the single-minded pursuit of goals and treasures.Most of the pirates spend their lives at sea.During their navigation,they have more discoveries of the world.Their activities influence the world,and also promote the development of the world in some ways.In the process of their piracy,they created a unique culture and spirit with their own characteristics.The “Viking Spirit” derived from the pirates shows the keen sense of smell for treasures and unfettered spirit of rebellion.Nowadays,the research on the “Viking Spirit” is not limited to pirate activities,but more in the financial field,and mostly exists in a positive sense.This unique the “Viking Spirit” is a key factor in the success of many international financial companies.The “Viking Spirit” also exists in literary translation.The inner characteristic of the “Viking Spirit” is embodied in the text and translation strategy selected by the translator.It is the “Viking Spirit” that contributes to the success of translation.In order to select a source text which can arouse the interest of the target-language readers,a translator should have a keen sense of smell as pirates.The literary works are endowed with emotions and writing styles of the author,and the translator should preserve it faithfully.It is a difficult task because of the cultural differences between the translator and the author.The translator should overcome several obstacles to convey these emotions correctly and maintain the writing styles.Therefore,completing a well-received translation needs serious effort,like pirates sailing the ocean.In the process of translation,the translator should try to convey the meaning of the original text on the basis of fully understanding the language and culture of the original text,and at the same time he should consider the acceptance of the target readers.Therefore,it is of great importance to select the appropriate strategies of translation.The domestication strategy aims to make the translation approach to the norms of the target language and take into consideration the cultural background of the target-language readers.It weakens the “foreignness” in the source-language text to make the translation more readable.The foreignization strategy aims to enable the target-language readers to apprehend the exotic culture,so as to preserves the “foreignness” of the source language.There are many similarities between the two translation strategies and the “Viking Spirit”.In 2012,Mo Yan became the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature,which attracted the attention of numerous scholars at home and abroad.His success was closely related to Howard Goldblatt,the prime translator of Mo Yan's works.Howard Goldblatt is a famous sinologist and translator,who has made great a contribution to the spread of Chinese culture.Shifu,You'll Do Anything for a Laugh is one of Mo Yan's typical novelettes,whose English version translated by Howard Goldblatt has been widely commended since it was published overseas.This thesis takes the English version translated by Howard Goldblatt of Mo Yan's novel Shifu,You'll Do Anything for a Laugh as the research object.The thesis analyses the “Viking Spirit” embodied in the selection of the literary works and the translation strategies by Howard Goldblatt from the cultural exchange between China and the West in the process of translation,hoping to provide useful ideas for future practices and studies of literary translation.Case analysis shows that the “Viking Spirit” can be successfully applied into the research and practice of literary translation.The domestication strategy is endowed with the “Viking Spirit” for source-language culture,because it is the process of discovering the source-language world and then transforming it to cater to the target-language world.The foreignization strategy is endowed with the “Viking Spirit” for the target-language culture,because it is the process of daring to challenge the target-language culture with unremitting efforts.To make the literary works stand out,the translator should also rebel against orthodoxy with an innovative spirit.The translator should give full play to his creativity and highlight his individuality under the premier of conveying the content of the original text.In doing so,the aesthetic value of the translation will be validated.All these represent the characteristics of the “Viking Spirit”.