从文化交流的角度看异化与归化.txt

foreignization and domestication-viewed from the perspective of cultural communication黯byzhang hongyunschool of foreign languageshenan universityapril,2006 acknowledgementshere i would like to present my heart-felt gratitude to a number of people whosehelp and encouragements i forever cherish.first of all,i would like to express my genuine gratitude to my supervisor,professor guo shangxing,who inspired my interests in the study of translation,offeredme valuable suggestions in the whole course of my thesis writing,read my manuscriptspatiently,and made significant improvements.his help has undoubtedly saved thisthesis from more blemishes than it would otherwise have had.under his guidance,myunderstanding of the research process and my interest in translation developed.i would like to give my thanks to my familymy mother,who took care of methroughout the whole process of writing;my father,who always gave me unswervingsupports,encouragements and help.finally,i would also like to extend my gratitude to some of my classmates,whooffered me many suggestions and helped me to collect books and information which arealso critical to this thesis. iabstractwith the flourishing of cultural study of translation,the former focus of literal andfree translation has been shifted to that of domestication and foreignization.it hasaroused the interests of linguists and translators at home and abroad.the scholars,somesupporting one and opposing to the other,some trying to make a compromise betweenthem,researched this issue of translation from various perspectives.this thesis endeavors to study this subject from the perspective of culturalcommunication,especially against the background of cultural globalization,whenpreserving the cultural diversity being a more urgent issue than ever before.the first chapter serves as an introduction,reviewing how the argument ofdomestication and foreignization came into being and making definitions of the twoschools.it also introduces the aims as well as the scope of research of this thesis.chapter two is the literature review.section one and section two present theideas and theories of these two schools respectively.section three is the authorsopinion.it examines the theories of the representatives of domestication school,andreveals the limitation of this school.it analyses the most influential translation theory inchinafunctional equivalence,and points out that because of the radical differencesacross cultures and the inseparable relationship between language and culture,functional equivalence is hardly achievable,so,this school,although dominant in thefield of translation,does have a vital defect,that is,it conforms the cultural features ofthe source language to that of the target one.chapter three is a research of the fundamental aim of translation.it proposes thatunder the circumstance of cultural globalization,when chinese culture is in anunfavorable situation,it is particularly essential for chinese-english translators toadopt the foreignization strategy to spread chinese culture to the world.it also pointsout that the value of translation lies in the communication of cultural differences.if theforeign features are adapted to the native ones for the fluency of the version,the purpose iiof communication cant be achieved,and the readers will miss the opportunity oflearning new ideas and thoughts,which is also one of the purposes of reading foreignworks.section one focuses upon the current trend of world cultureglobalization,andthe appropriate approach toward it.it suggests the principle ofharmony in differencesand points out that in order to preserve cultural diversity,the translator should employthe foreignization strategy in dealing with the cultural differences.section two centers on the unfavorable situation for the chinese-englishtranslators.it traces the history of translation between english and chinese and pointsout that it is particularly difficult for the chinese-english translators to maintain thechinese cultural features in translation,so the domestication has dominated in this area.the danger is that if we do not take measures,the chinese culture will lose its identityand be assimilated by themainstreamcultures.section three tries to prove that the cognition of a strange culture is a gradualprocess and that the readers ability of understanding a foreign one should not beunderestimated.section four quotes the definition of translation made by professor zhang jin andanalyses several examples of translation to show that the aim of translation is thecommunication of cultural differences.section five makes comparison between the two chinese versions of the sameenglish novel joan haste to show how the two different strategies of translationachieved different effects in china.chapter four discusses the application of foreignizing translation of chineseculture in various aspects.the author wants to show the feasibility of this strategy andits function in preserving the originality of chinese culture.section one is about the translation of chinese psychology,which underlies all theother aspects of culture and presents itself as the most subtle problem in translation.itexplores the various demonstrations of chinese psychology and the proper translation of iiithem,such as the translation of chinese peoples self-abasement,their high respects forothers,and their emphasis upon hierarchy.in general,comparisons are made betweenthe foreignizing translation and the domesticating one in order to show the advantage ofthe former one.section two discusses the translation of chinese social values,such as chinesecollectivismas opposed to western individualism,which also poses a great difficulty intranslation.section three focuses upon the translation of chinese idioms,which typicallyreflect the cultural features of different nations.the author holds that since the imagescontained in the idioms are culture-specific,they should be preserved in order to showthe uniqueness of a particular culture.in section four,the focus is shifted to china english,a new variety of englishwhich is actually the application of foreignization in the translation of unique chinesecultural features.first,it tries to prove that to achieve the equality in communication across cultures,language is the major problem.to interpret a specific culture,no other language isbetter than the native one.english has been chosen as the international language forcommunication and that is truly unfavorable for all the other cultures.yet there is stillsomething we can do to improve the current situation,for example,throughforeignization in translation,the elements of chinese culture can be introduced toenglish to better interpret the uniqueness of chinese culture.through foreignization,english culture has penetrated into every corner of the world,and in the same way,wecan spread chinese culture to the world.then the origin of china english and the main categories of it are discussed.china english is young but it is already playing an important part in bridging chineseculture with that of the world.the last chapter is the conclusion of this thesis.from the above illustration,wecan see that domestication in translation has many shortcomings,and it is especially ivunfavorable for the communication of different cultures.since the value of translationlies in the exchange of ideas and thoughts across cultures,the foreignness of the originalshould be preserved to the possibly utmost degree.especially in the background ofcultural globalization,when chinese culture and chinese-english translation are indisadvantageous positions,we should tend more to the foreignization inchinese-english translation to improve the present situation.we should take part in thecultural competition with our own features,instead of conforming to themainstreamcultures.china english is a successful experiment of foreignization strategy intranslation.it plays an important role in introducing chinese culture to the world andgives us much confidence in preserving chinese cultural identity through foreignizationin translation.key words:foreignization,domestication,cultural communicationculturalglobalization,cultural identity v黯飬黯綨黯-黯紫黯黯硣 vi岢joan haste档黯壬壬紫黯 vii黯 viiicontentsacknowledgementsabstract(english).iabstract(chinese).vchapter1 introduction.1chapter2 literature review.52.1 the domestication school.52.2 the foreignization school.92.3 the authors opinions about these two schools.13chapter 3 the fundamental aim of translation-communication ofdifferent cultures163.1 a new epoch of world culture.163.2 the unfavorable situation for the chinese translators.183.3 readers can gradually understand and accept the foreign cultures213.4 the analysis of several examples taken from the call to arms.253.5 the comparison ofand.27chapter 4 the foreignizing translation of chinese culture in various aspectsand the new variety of english-china english294.1 the translation of chinese psychology294.1.1 chinese psychology:humanity()and rites294.1.2 chinese peoples self-abasement.304.1.3 respect for others for warm interpersonal relationship334.1.4 value of hierarchy354.2 the translation of chinese values.384.3 the translation of chinese idioms.414.4 china english-a necessity of reflecting the realities in chinaand of participating in the world culture competition.43 ix.4.4.1 to achieve equal communication,language is the main difficulty434.4.2 china english:bridge between chinese culture and the world.45chapter 5 conclusion.48bibliography.50 1chapter 1 introductiontogether with the booming of cultural study of translation,which came into beingin the seventies of the last century,and has become prevailing in the academic circleever since,the debates of foreignization and domestication have been sparkled amongscholars.as we all know,language can not be separated from culture,and no text can existout of certain cultural context.moreover,every language and culture is a distinct andunique system,although overlapping in some respects;they are different from eachother in most cases.then in translation,the translators will invariably confront theproblems of tackling the cultural features of different nations demonstrated in the texts.take the geographical environment as an example.because of different locations,east wind and west wind are different in china and england,and convey differentfeelings.the following is the comparison:chinese englishsweet and low,sweet and low,wind of the west seaalfred tennysonits warm wind,the west wind,full of birdscriesjhon masfieldthe west wind which is warm and sweet in england is cold and unwelcome inchina.then should we translate thewest windintoeast wind()or just translateit literally?those in favor of the former will say that it can avoid misunderstanding andremove the barriers of communication,while those in favor of the latter will say literaltranslation maintains the principle of faithfulness of translation and reveals the true 2aspects of a foreign culture.here appear two terms for the different strategies of dealing with the culturalfactors in translation:foreignization and domestication.they were presented as issuesof translation by lawrence venuti for the first time in 1995,and they originated directlyfrom a thesis written by german scholar schleiermacher.schleiermacher claimed thatthere are two kinds of translations:the translator can either leave the writer in peace asmuch as possible and bring the reader to him,or he can leave the reader in peace asmuch as possible and bring the writer to him.(quoted by wilss,2001:33).thus he definedthe reader-oriented and writer-oriented translations,outgrowing the age-old dispute offree and literal translation.the former views translation from the perspective of culture,while the latter,from the perspective of language.but what are foreignization and domestication?how to define them?in whichway are they different from the free and literal translation?in actual translation practice,especially in the translation of literary works,atranslator may often confront cultural differences so that he will find himself alwaysfacing with decision-making,that is,to either make his translation incline toward thesource cultureforeignizing,or toward the target culturedomesticating.incontemporary translation,scholars often compare the two versions of chinese classicnovel hong lou meng,translated respectively by david hawkes and mr.yang xianyi,in order to show the differences of the two strategies.1(,2002:50)(1a)gracious budda!mrs.chou chuckled.how terribly chancy!you mightwait for ten years without such a run of luck.(yanghsien-yi and gladys yang,1994:104)(1b)god bless my son!zhou ruis wife exclaimed,you would certainlyneed some patience!why,you might wait ten years before getting all thosethings at the proper times!(hawkes,1979:98) 3(2)(,2002:173)(2a)even the cleverest housewife cant cook a meal without rice.(yanghsien-yi and gladys yang,1994:343)(2b)even the cleverest housewife cant make bread without flour!(hawkes,1979:331)in these two examples,the translations(1b)and(2b)are obviously orientedtowards the target-language culture and its aim is to facilitate reading.in doing so,thetranslator adapts the source culture to make it in line with the target culture.thisstrategy is called domestication.(1a)and(2a)are typical examples of another strategy,foreignization which is oriented towards the source-language culture and its aim is topreserve source cultural features so that foreignness can be achieved in translation.domestication and foreignization are two strategies adopted by the translator to tacklecultural differences.domesticating translation is concerned mainly with message;it isreader-based.foreignization is concerned with cultural traits;it is author-based.theformer stresses the communicative function of the translation while the latter puts greatemphasis on the preservation of the foreign culture.the former aims to achievetransparent and fluent style in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text,while the latter deliberately breaks the target conventions by retaining something of theforeigness of the original.foreignization and domestication are far from being the translation skill that areconfined to the tackling of some culture-specific terms such asand.they should be considered in the overall cultural environment,and they show thetranslatorsinclinations towards the source and the target cultures demonstrated in thetranslations.a domesticating translation may replace the cu