（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）在文化全球化语境下看翻译中异化的趋势.pdf

the trend of foreignization in translation in the context of cultural globalization ii 摘 要 在翻译中有两种翻译策略：归化与异化。归化指消除源文本中的一切陌生感 和异域性，使译文读起来像原著，归化译法以目标语言为中心；异化指将源语言 的异域性最大限度地保留，译文读起来就像译著，异化译法以文化交流为中心。 过去，归化一直占据主要地位，而异化则处于从属地位。如今，随着国家之间不 断加强的政治与经济合作，各民族日益频繁的文化交流使得文化全球化，这不仅 促进读者了解彼此的文化，而且也推动了异化这一翻译策略的广泛采用，异化开 始成为翻译的趋势。 传统的翻译研究历来比较重视语言层面的分析，却对语言翻译过程中所涉及 的文化现象有所忽视。然而，随着信息的传播和大众传媒的日益普及，使得文化 与全球化与的关系密不可分。文化全球化作为经济全球化的一个直接后果，对各 民族间文化的传播、交流提出了新的要求。因此，从文化全球化的语境下进一步 研究翻译策略具有重大意义，因为在全球化大背景中翻译实际上变成了一种文化 传播和文化阐释。译者在进行翻译时，应该摆脱纯语言文字层面的束缚，将源文 置于广阔的文化全球语境之下去研究。与此同时，译者更应顺应这一形势，在翻 译过程中，尽量采取异化的翻译策略，最大程度地保留我国优秀传统文化的特色， 并将这些传统文化传播到世界各地，让更多的人了解。 本文试图在以文化全球化的背景下，通过对归化和异化策略的分析与对比， 结合具体实例，论述在文化交流为目的的翻译职能中，异化是翻译的必然趋势。 希望此文能够使读者进一步了解异化作为一种翻译策略在翻译中的优势，同时也 希望这次在异化方面的初步尝试能够将翻译领域中对异化的研究推向一个新的高 度。 关键词： 文化全球化， 归化， 异化 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 iii abstract there are two translating strategies in translation.: domestication and foreignization. domestication means removing all strangeness and foreignness of the st (source text) and making the translation read exactly like the original. domestication is oriented to the tl (target language). foreignization is quite the opposite approach which is trying to retain the foreignness of the sl (source language) to the greatest extent, making the translation read like translated one. foreignization is oriented to the cultural communication. in the past, domestication played a major role while foreignization was just in a subordinate status. nowadays, with the increasing development of political and economic cooperation among different nations, the cultural globalization is being formed, laying a good foundation not only for the readers to understand each other s culture, but also for the possibility of the wide application of foreignization in translation. foreignization is now becoming a tendency. traditional translation research has always attached importance to language analysis and at the same time ignored the cultural phenomenon during the process of translation. with the popularity of message communication and mass media, the culture is getting tied up with globalization. as the direct result of economic globalization, the cultural globalization makes a new demand on the cultural communication and exchange with other countries. therefore, it will be of great importance to have a further research about the translating strategies in the context of cultural globalization. under such circumstances, translation virtually becomes cultural communication and interpretation. on the one hand, translators cannot still stay on the language form, as they should put st in the context of cultural globalization to study. on the other hand, translators should accordingly try their best to retain the glorious features of the traditional cultures and spread the cultures to all parts of the world by adopting foreignization as much as possible. based on analysis and comparison between the two strategies with concrete instances, this thesis tries to reach a conclusion that with the background of cultural globalization, the foreignization should be preferred. it is hoped that the thesis will not only help readers have a further understanding of the advantages of foreignization as a translating strategy, but also promote its application in practice of translation. key words: cultural globalization, domestication, foreignization 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 i acknowledgements first of all, my heartfelt thanks go to my mentor, professor zhang liyu, since this thesis owes a great deal to her guidance and advice. her guidance and strictness in the past three years are of great help to my graduate study as well as my future research. i am also grateful to all the other teachers and all my classmates for their kind and selfless advice to the preparation and writing of the thesis. thanks for my friendship which has made the three years all the more enjoyable. 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 1 introduction in recent twenty years, there exist two tendencies in translation study: one is that translation theories are deeply related to communication theories, the other is that the emphasis has been turned from language form to the culture image. western translation schools have been established one after another such as philology school, linguistic school, functionalism school, interpretation school, semiology school since 1970s. and in 1990s, culture school of translation was established with the development of economic and cultural intercourse among different countries. the representative of culture school bassnett holds: translation is not a mere activity concerning language, but keeps close ties with culture. cultural globalization means that there exist all the cultures throughout the world and they “ seek integration” and “ m aintain differences” . and it does not mean that the underprivileged culture is in a jeopardized and dispelled position and assimilated by the privileged culture. globalization culture is not an integrated world culture, not the consequence of privileged culture, but pluralistic, multi- composite form resulted from the multi- direction movement. for this reason, globalization culture is a kind of plural culture. however, national cultures which are not interconnected and communicating mutually even if existing in the world cannot be named globalization cultures. all the national cultures are equal in the mutual communication, hence in the context of cultural globalization people think the purpose of translation is not merely to transmit message from one language into another, but to promote the dissemination, communication and infiltration between different national cultures and then to advance the process of society and culture. with such background, foreignization should be the most effective way to achieve that goal, which will be the primary translating strategy in the future. in this paper, the author makes a detailed demonstration on the theme in five parts: chapter 1 gives definitions of domestication and foreignization along with the literary review on domestication and foreignization both abroad and at home. chapter 2 makes a comparison among language, culture and translation and discusses the trend of the cultural globalization. chapter 3 is the key part of the whole thesis. it discusses the dialectical relationship between the two strategies, talks about the disadvantages of domestication versus advantages of foreignization and explains the inevitable trend of foreignization in translation. the trend of foreignization in translation in the context of cultural globalization 2 chapter 4 applies the theory into practice, that is, into idiom and literature, to prove that the foreignization is the best choice. in the last chapter, the author comes to a conclusion, in which the author maintains that the ultimate trend in translating strategy is foreignization, with domestication being the second choice. 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 3 1 literature review 1.1 definition of domestication and foreignization these two translation strategies have been given various formulations, past and present. the german philosopher and translator schleiermacher (1977) proposed in the lecture ueber die verschiedenen mmethoden des ubersetzens (on the different methods of translating), “ in my opinion ,there are only two methods. either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him” the very terms domestication and foreignization were first coined by lawrence venuti in his book the translator s invisibility in 1995 (venuti,1995:20). the general meanings of the two terms are as follows: domestication is a translation strategy or method aiming to conform to the values that dominate the tl culture. domestication refers to target- language- culture- oriented translation in which expressions acceptable in target language culture are exploited in order to make the translated texts intelligible and suitable for the target text readers. foreignization is a translation strategy or method aiming to preserve the values of the sl culture. foreignization is source- language- culture- oriented translation, which strives to preserve as much as possible the original flavor in order to retain the foreignness of the source language culture. drawing on schleiermacher s idea, lawrence venuti defines domestication as “ an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to the target- language cultural values, bringing the author back home” (venuti,1995:20). mark shuttleworth and moira cowie, by adapting venuti s definition, define domestication as “ a term used by venuti to describe the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style isadopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for the tl readers” (shuttleworth but as long as the change follows the rules of back transformation in the source language of contextual consistency in the transfer and of transformation in the receptor language, the message is preserved and the translation is faithful” (nida thomas carlyle used germanic structures when he translated german works into english. in the nineteenth century, the important essays and references by goethe, humboldt, novalis, and nietzsche, etc. inclined towards more literal or foreignizing translation strategy (newmark,1981:4). the foreignizing translation continued to be popular from the early 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. walter benjamin, ezra pound and vladinir nabokov carried this trend into the twentieth century. for example, nabokov insisted that only a word for word translation, i.e. a literal translation, was valid in literary translation, while pound rendered a number of works into english by resorting to foreignization. although during this period other translators like edward fitzgerald, a british translator, who has advocated a very free translation that might alter the original so as to keep its liveliness. but their voices were drowned in the great emphasis on literalism and foreignization that continued until the 1940s when domestication became popular again (马会娟,2003:53- 57). in 1995, in his book the translator s invisibility, venuti gave a symptomatic study of western translation history and revealed the roles played by domestication in the dominant cultures when translating from other weak cultures, that is, to recreate the foreign text according to ethnocentrism and imperialistic cultural values which advocate the fluent translation strategy. so he proposed foreignization or abusive fidelity to resist the target conventions and liberate the foreign languages and cultures in the target text. venuti s proposal sparked another round of controversy over domestication and foreignization after more than half a century s domination of domestication in western translation circle. venuti s unique perspective has attracted attention internationally, as gentzler puts it, “ venuti s international following is quite strong, particularly in europe and latin american. the publishing industry in the united states, which currently is increasingly open to finding new ways to introduce cultural difference into anglo- american society, will soon follow. they are already experimenting with new forms of presenting translations, including using additional supplementary material such as prefaces, introduction, interviews, footnotes, to help the readers adjust to the foreign ideas and structures.” (gentzler,2001:43) the trend of foreignization in translation in the context of cultural globalization 8 1.2.2 domestication and foreignization in china the contemporary debate on domestication and foreignization in china is not less drastic than in america and it can be regarded as the extension of the debate between literal and free translation in 1920 s and 1930 s. what is different from america is that in china there is no representative in this heated debate and the related essays can be found frequently in many journals of foreign language studies. on the part of the history of domestication and foreignization in china, we d better trace back to the may fourth movement. earlier in the opium war, western literature was regarded as a tool of social reform, so translators did not care so much about being faithful to the source text as about how to conform to the social and cultural trend of the late qing dynasty and cater for the taste of the readers. therefore, domestication prevailed in the literary translation of this period until the may fourth movement. yan fu and lin shu are two representatives of the translators adopting domestication at this historical period. after the may fourth movement, a round of dispute over domestication and foreignization arose in the 1920s and 1930s, which took the form of debates about the dichotomy of “ faithfulness” and “ smoothness” . in the 1920s, enlightened chinese scholars proposed to translate western works into china with a view to creating a new culture. lu xun and qu qiubai, as representatives of the “ faithfulness” school, declared “ rather to be faithful (in thought) than to be smooth (in language)” they upheld the literal translation with the purpose of enriching the chinese language by introducing new ways of expressions as well as retaining the foreign flavor. however, liang shiqiu and zhao jingshen, as representatives of the “ smoothness” school, declared “ rather to be smooth (in language) than to be faithful (in thought)” and maintained that the principle of “ smoothness” should be followed because the target reader preferred a translation easy to read. it was right in this period that the concepts of domestication and foreignization stood out more clearly than any period before. during this debate, the “ faithfulness” school took the upper hand and many translators consciously adopted foreignization. their efforts introduced many foreign words and imported many western grammatical structures. foreignization in this period had enriched the chinese vocabulary and contributed to the diversity of chinese ways of expressions. despite the advantages of foreignization mentioned above, it has many disadvantages. for example, unidiomatic ways of expression made the target text difficult to be understood. so since the late 1930s, domestication seized the dominant status again in literary translation. fu lei s “ spirit resemblance” (神似说) in the 1950s 中南民族大学硕士学位论文 9 and qian zhongshu s “ sublimation” ( 化 境 说 ) in the 1960s are the most representative viewpoints of translation supporting domestication. fu lei argued that “ as far as the effect of translation is concerned, translation should be like copying a painting, seeking resemblance in spirit rather than in form” (以效果而论，翻译应当像临画一样，所求得不在形似而在神似 ) (qtd. in 陈福康, 1992:28). following his principle, fu lei s translated works are in very natural and fluent chinese, revealing few traces of foreignness. as qian zhongshu said , “ when a work is translated from one language into another, the translated version should not only retain the original flavor but also show no unnaturalness caused by the linguistic differences between the two languages” (把作品从一国文字转变为另一国文字， 既不 能因语文习惯的差异而露出生硬牵强的痕迹，又能完全保存原有的风味) (qtd. in 罗新璋,1984:696). therefore, domestication dominated the literary translation of this period. it was liu yingkai who first challenged the dominance of domestication in chinese translation circle in his essay “ domesticationthe wrong track of translation” . according to the reality of chinese translation circle he summed up five types of the domestication: the abuse of four- word idioms; the abuse of words of classic elegance; the abuse of abstraction; the abuse of replacement; the abuse of allusions and images. he opposed the domestication method and he stated, domestication will “ reconstruct the objective realities of the foreign countries and obliterate the national features so as to make them assimilated and submitted to the target language. so it is the distortion of the original text as a necessity” (刘英 恺,1987:60). in 1997, xu jun organized a survey of the readers responses to the different versions of the french novel scarlet and black, which aroused a debate on domestication and foreignization. from then on domestication and foreignization became the focus of discussion in chinese translation circle. many academic theses on this topic had been published on some key journals of foreign language studies in recent years. in 1998, professor guo jianzhong made a detailed analysis of the concepts of adaptation and alienation in his academic paper a cultural approach to translation, drawing a conclusion that adaptation and alienation would coexist forever (郭建中,1998:12- 18). only in 2002 did chinese translators journal alone publish more than six papers on this issue, which shed light to the updated tendencies of domestication and foreignization from various perspectives. professor sun zhili predicted the tendency of the theoretical development of domestication and foreignization, pointing out that foreignization tends to be dominant in china s literary the trend of foreignization in translation in the context of cultural globalization 10 translation in the 21st century ( 孙致礼,2002:40- 44). his opinion confronted some disagreements, for example, cai ping held that the purpose of translation was to communicate. the domesticating translation was preferred for it was easy for readers to understand while a foreignized translation may be too foreign for readers to read, let alone to appreciate it. looking back to the tran