From Domestication To Foreignization

Lu Xun's ideas on translation were treasures for the translation studies in China. At present, new perspectives of translation studies connect the study of translation with the study of culture, history, politics and society etc, which suggests that scholars should cast more attention to the study of the rich resources in our translation history. On such a background, it is meaningful to conduct a new discussion on Lu Xun's translation theories with three advantages: firstly, he was the first translator who brought forward the notions of "domestication" and "preserving the exoticism" in China; secondly, he lived in an important era in terms of both politics and literature; thirdly, in resent years the postcolonial discussion on "domestication", "foreignization", and "cultural hegemony" has been set on a certain scale.The study of Lu Xun's translation theories is not a new subject. Thus, it is challenging but also significant. This thesis tends to start with Lu Xun's transformation in his translation strategies, and from a perspective of the politics of translation, reveal the influence of ideology on the selection of translation strategies and the manipulation of the politics of translation on translated literature, with the help from Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and the postcolonial translation theories. The following problems will be discussed in the thesis:Firstly, the limitation of the previous discussion on Lu Xun's translation ideas into a dispute on "literal" vs. "free" translation can be overcome by a new perspective from the politics of translation. The sterile discussion of "what is a good translation" will be turned from a technical dispute to the building of translation theories, which can give a hint to the construction of a correct attitude, method, and knowledge of translation criticism.Secondly, the larger space and time devoted to the discussion on Lu Xun's translations can overcome the limitations from short essays. There have been a lot of studies of Lu Xun's translation theories. However, most of them are only a part of the materials under the discussion of other subjects. Even when there is one devoted to the discussion of Lu Xun's translation, however, because of the limitation of length,the reader's understanding of Lu Xun's translations will be also limited.Thirdly, Lu Xun was conventionally recognized as a representative of "literal" translation, or the first one who brought forward the notions of "domestication" and "foreignization". Few people have paid attention to Lu Xun's early translations. In fact, Lu Xun's early translations were typical examples of domesticating translation, which were prone to be ignored by most people, because of (1) his short period of domesticating translation, (2) his less amount of domesticated translated works, and (3) his own denial of his early translations. However, every change has its reason behind. A developing viewpoint towards the study of Lu Xun's translation can help better the understanding of his transformation towards foreignization, and also the classification of the extraliterary elements which influence the translation strategies.Fourthly, Lu Xun's transformation from domestication to foreignization was a product of his era. This seemingly individual contingency was actually a necessary development in the polysystem. The difference only lied in the sensitivity of different literators towards the politics. We can see from this that the politics of translation control the working of translation, thus, translation criticism should be based on a correct understanding of the politics of translation in order to discover the truth of translation.In all, this research tends to explore to Lu Xun's translation theories from a new angle, reinforcing the discussion of the sophisticated relations between translation, culture and society etc.