Translators' Cultural Preferences And Their Selection Of Translation Strategies-From The Perspective Of Polysystem Theory

This thesis attempts to explore the influence of translators' culturalpreferences in translation. With a systematic and diachronic method,Even-Zohar's polysystem theory provides a new way of translation studiesfrom the perspective of descriptive translation studies. Polysystem theoryholds that when the target language culture is dominate, translated literatureoccupies a dominant position, and translators tend to be adequacy-oriented(foreignization), while when the target language culture is weak, translatedliterature occupies a peripheral position, they tend to beacceptability-oriented (domestication). The theory bears advantages as wellas limitations. Translating process is a complex one which involves languageand culture, translator and reader, subjective elements and objectiveelements. A translator judges whether the target language culture is indominative or weak position from their subjective culture preferences.Accordingly, the selection of translation strategies, to a large extent, isconditioned by the translator's subjective attitude.In Chapter One the author analyses the framework of polysystem and itsapplication in translation studies. In Chapter Two the author argues that it isnecessary to take translator's cultural preferences into consideration. ChapterThree describes the three aspects of cultural preferences, i.e. culturalawareness, cultural competence and cultural attitude. The author then explores the significance of translators' cultural: preferences by analyzingtheir selections of translation strategies with some historical facts in China inChapter Four.A general conclusion is made in the last part. The polysystem theoryshould be revised as an integrated translation theory which indicates thedynamic relationship between source language, translator and readershipunder the framework of social cultural studies by taking translators' culturalpreferences into account.It is hoped that this study will throw some light on the formulating of adynamic polysystem translation theory in order to describe varioustranslation phenomena.