归化与异化英文论文

Domestication and Foreignization:
A Case Study Of Selected Modern Chinese Essays Rendered
by Zhang Peiji
Abstract
Domestication and foreignization are widely applied as two major translation strategies. Also, as an academic issue, they are discussed with ardent interest by scholars at home and abroad. As scholars hold different opinions about theirapplication, the author believes that the two strategies are worth studying further. The author concludes that domestication is much more frequently employed and foreignization functions as a complementary strategy in Zhang’s translated works, and that domestication can be reasonably applied as the dominating translation strategy, and foreignization may be effectively used to translate cultural elements, which is especially true of translation of Chinese essays into English. It is sincerely hoped that this thesis will enlighten translators and help them flexibly utilize translation strategies so that they may do better in translation.
Key words: translation strategies, domestication, foreignization, a case study
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Necessity and Significance of This Study
Since translation appeared, research on translation strategies has never ceased. As two translation strategies, domestication and foreignization have aroused intense discussions since they were put forward by Lawrence V enuti. Many researchers have raised their opinions on domestication and foreignization.
But there are still problems. This thesis not only presents a relatively comprehensive study of domestication and foreignization, but also provides a case study of Selected Modern Chinese Essays translated into English by Professor Zhang Peiji so as to show how domestication and foreignization are flexibly employed in translation practice and to prove which is the dominating translation strategy and which is the supplementary one.
1.2 Research Methodology
The major methods used in this thesis are as follows: (1) the descriptive approach;
(2) the comparative-study approach; (3) the case-study method; (4) the qualitative-analysis method; (5) the quantitative-analysis method. All the examples have been carefully selected from the two volumes of Selected Modern Chinese Essays Rendered Into English by Zhang Peiji.
1.3 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is composed of four parts,
Chapter One first explains the necessity and significance of this research, then it states the research methodology and the organization of this thesis.Chapter Two presents a brief review of major studies on domestication and foreignization at home and abroad. Chapter Three carries out a case study of Professor Zhang’s two volumes of Selected Modern Chinese Essays Rendered Into English to show how domestication and foreignization are employed in translation practice.Chapter Four serves as the conclusion. This chapter summarizes the main points.
Chapter Two Literature Review
This chapter first reviews major studies on foreignization and domestication abroad, then it overviews main studies of the two translation strategies in China.
2.1 Studies on Foreignization and Domestication Abroad
Initial studies on domestication and foreignization in the West can be traced back to Friedrich Schleiermacher, a German theologician and philosopher. In 1813 in his essay entitled“On the Different Methods of Translation”, Schleiermacheremphasized that there were two paths in translation.
Eugene Nida is an influential advocator of domestication, who focuses on the communicative function of translation. He put forward dynamic equivalence, which means that the receptors of the message in the receptor language respond to it in the same manner as the receptors in the source language (N ida, 1964:166).
2.2 Studies on Foreignization and Domestication in China
With the introduction of domestication and foreignization into China, many researchers raised their opinions on the two translation strategies.In 1987, an academic paper entitled “Domestication: The Wrong Track in Translation”by Liu Yingkai aroused the first round of dispute on domestication and foreignization.
In 1995, Weihui Reading Weekly and Foreign Languages School of Nanjing University organized a survey of readers’responses to different versions of the French novel Scarlet and Black, which gave rise to a debate on many translation issues, including domestication and foreignization.
Chapter Three
A Case Study of Selected Modern Chinese Essays Rendered Into English by Zhang Peiji from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization
As Chinese and English are two different languages, different words are always employed to express the same meaning. For example, “红茶”in Chinese has the same meaning as “black tea”in English. Even the same word or expression may have different meanings. For example, “龙”is a positive word in Chinese while the word“dragon”is often connected with evils and considered as negative in Western culture.In translation, we should consider such lexical differences and choose different translation strategies accordingly. Take “亚洲四小龙”, a Chinese phrase, as anexample. “亚洲四小龙”refers to the four regions with a booming economy ––Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Korea. The translation of “亚洲四小龙”into “four tigers in Asia”, an equivalent phrase in English, may be considered as an instance handled by means of domestication.
Chinese does show a linguistic phenomenon that four-character phrases are often employed. Obviously, frequent use of domestication helps to express their meaning, and enables target readers to understand the corresponding versions better, and thus Chinese essays can be introduced into Western countries more easily. But as we know, everything is divided into two. Frequent use of domestication affects the spread of Chinese characteristics. When Western readers read English versions of four-character expressions, they may not realize their ubiquitous existence in Chinese. However, as numerous Westerners have learned or are learning Chinese, this particular Chinese feature has become known or will be familiar to more and more Westerners.
Chapter Four Conclusion
Domestication and foreignization serve as two major translation strategies. The two terms originated from German theologician and philosopher, Friedrich Schleiermacher’s lecture. Later on, V enuti (1995) explained the two terms. According to V enuti, domestication is the dominating translation strategy in Anglo-American culture. Employment of domestication brings the original text and author to the target text readers, erasing the linguistic and cultural differences and making the original text conform to the current dominant linguistic characteristics and values in the target-language culture. Foreignization was coined by V enuti to resist domestication. Application of foreignization brings the target language readers to the original author and the original text, keeping the original linguistic and cultural differences and even attempting to find differences. We may realize foreignization by using non-standard discourse or choosing to translate a text that challenges the contemporary canon.
Bibliography
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