Exploration Of Hybridity In Translation In The Context Of Cultural Globalization

Cultural globalization strengthens the mutual exchanges between language cultures, the result of which is that different language cultures infiltrate into each other and become increasingly interdependent. As an indispensable means of communication, translating plays a vital role in this process and its end products — translations — will inevitably bear the imprint of both the source and the target language cultures.Historically, scholars held heated discussions over the dichotomy of domestication and foreignization. However, the findings of the present study suggest that all translations are characterized by hybridity, resulting from a compromise between domestication and foreignization. In fact, some translations are domestication-oriented hybrid texts while others are foreignization-oriented hybrid texts. What they differ is the degree of hybridity. Previous researches on hybridity in translation have brought in many enlightening ideas, but they are still unsystematic and lack theoretical support. In view of this situation, the author bases the present study on the postcolonial translation theory and the polysystem theory, from which he draws theoretical support for the study of hybridity in translation.This thesis explains the relationship between hybridity and domestication / foreignization, and then examines the situations where hybridity in translation occurs. It also explores some important features of hybridity in translation. In order to prove that all translations are hybrid texts, the author chooses A Dream of Red Mansions (the translation of Hong Lou Meng done by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang) as the data for analysis. Through the examination of A Dream of Red Mansions, the author concludes that it is a foreignization-oriented hybrid text and its hybridity manifests in four major categories, namely, hybridity in thetranslation of words, hybridity in the translation of idioms and proverbs, hybridity in the translation of sentences and hybridity in the translation of poems.