On Hybridization In Literary Translation

Since the second half of the 20^th century,there has existed a cultural turn in translation studies.More and more domestic and overseas scholars tend to scrutinize and research into translation at the cultural level.Therefore,in a certain sense,translation studies are turning into cultural studies.Accordingly,the long and widely existing disputes over two translation strategies—domestication and foreignization have expanded from the issue of literal and free translation under the linguistic framework to that of domestication and foreignization in a wider socio-cultural context,and from the focus merely on the transformation of words to the research on the influence of cultural powers on the choice of translation strategy.The main discrepancy in the disputes in history over domestication and foreignization lies in the fact that each side highlights the advantages of one strategy and denies the other based on a stiff dichotomy between these two strategies.Gratifyingly,more and more Chinese and Western scholars gradually tend to dialectically consider the relationship between domestication and foreignization at both the linguistic and the broader cultural levels under the influence of Deconstruction,Post-Colonialism and other continuously emerging new theories,holding that both of them are complementary.Furthermore,some scholars point out the hybridization trend of literary translation.This thesis begins with the relationship between language and culture,showing their influence on translation,and points out that it is possible to explore the issue of domestication and foreignization at these two levels.At the linguistic level,domesticating strategy can transfer the original text's information and improve the TT reader's linguistic comprehension as far as possible.However,too much emphasis on and overuse of domestication at the cultural level may distort the heterogeneous culture in the original text,which exerts a passive impact on cultural communications between nations,especially on the spread of weak cultures,such as Chinese culture in strong cultures in Western developed countries and leads to the marginalization of weak cultures. Thus there exists a tendency towards hybridization in literary translation, namely appropriate combination of domestication and foreignization at both the linguistic and cultural levels.If the translator mainly adopts domestication,the TT,to a lesser extent,is hybridized,and vice versa.The current situation of exchange between Chinese and Western cultures is that the translated works introducing Western culture to China are much more than those introducing Chinese culture to the West. Hence adverse balance of information.In this sense,we have reasons to acknowledge Dr.Lin Yutang's great contribution to the spread of Chinese culture to the West after a survey of his English writings and translations since the 1930s.Studies on his successful transmission of Chinese culture in idiomatic English cast a light on the transmission of Chinese culture to the West in the context of cultural globalization.Lin Yutang's first English novel Moment in Peking is Chinese-culture-featured but written with his excellent ability of skillful English language use.In this sense,this English novel might be seen as a translation.This thesis chiefly attempts to probe into the translation strategy of Moment in Peking from five categories of culture proposed by Nida, leading to the conclusion that hybridization in literary translation organically combines domestication and foreignization,which is helpful to the TT reader's comprehension and acceptance of the content of the original text,the introduction of weak cultures into strong cultures and inter-cultural communication.