| Literary translation is a most important part of translation. Chinese modern literary translation is the necessary outcome of cultural exchange between modern Chinese and western cultures, meanwhile, it is the major carrier of cultural exchange between modern Chinese and western cultures. Cultural discrepancies do exist in different nations, and we define such discrepancies as cultural elements, which complicate the translation. Literary translation, as an important medium of cultural exchange activities, simple domestication or substitution can no longer meet its demand. The basic difference between literary translation and other translations is that the purpose of literary translation is to convey the source-text culture, promote the cultural exchange and enrich the target-text language and so on. When translating the cultural elements, we should try to keep the foreign flavor, seeking the commonness and reserving the foreignness. Therefore, literary translation is not only a transcoding between different languages, but also an exchange and replenishment.It is unarguable that there is some dissimilarity between different cultures. Misreading mainly originates from cultural discrepancy. When confronted with foreign cultures, people tend to make judgments and interpretations based on what they are familiar with or on the needs of their own culture. The consequence is the distortion of the other culture. Then the thesis puts forward that translation criticism should be multi-dimensional, which means sensible criticism should contextualize translation and give it a due assessment. The discussion on strategies of domestication and foreignization in literary translation has been a long-debated issue in Chinese translation circle.Translation is a cross-cultural practice. One of its main purposes is to develop cultural exchanges. Toward the cultural globalization in the 21st century, an eclectic strategy is more feasible to realize cultural exchange, which is to foreignize the cultural elements in the source texts and to domesticate the linguistic elements in order to make the translated work recognizable in the Chinese culture.This thesis consists of six parts:The introduction gives an account of the current situation of translation, the significance of this topic and the purpose of the study.In Chapter One the writer introduces the relationship between language and culture and the close relationship between translation and culture, reaching the conclusion that literary translation is a cross-cultural practice. Cultural transfer is one of the most important functions of translation.In Chapter Two the writer introduces cultural influences on some aspects and some misreading because of cultural differences.In Chapter Three the writer illustrates foreignization and domestication as two main strategies in dealing with cultural elements in translation.In Chapter Four the writer chooses a perspective of cultural transfer to study these two strategies and draws a conclusion that foreignization is more effective in cultural transfer.The study and analysis are based on the analysis of a large amount of examples. But to advocate foreignization does not exclude the use of domestication. Domestication is necessary for certain types of texts, for a certain group of readers with little knowledge of the source language and culture and for some contents that cannot be understood or will cause misunderstandings if translated by foreignization. In other words, domestication is a necessary supplementary method to foreignization.From the analysis in the above four chapters the writer draws the conclusion that it is better for a translator to adopt foreignization in order to develop cultural exchanges more effectively. And on the other hand, a translator is also expected to adopt domestication as a supplementary method. Thus, an ideal literary translation may largely be achieved. Therefore, the special images of the original texts can and should be kept and conveyed in translation. We lay particular stress on foreignization and, when necessary, adopt domestication. The degree to either requires the translator's flexible and effective work. |
