An Analysis Of Foreignization In Lin's C-E Translation Activities From The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

The study of translators is among the subjects of translation studies as they play a crucial role in translation activities and have lots of theoretical and practical knowledge gained from practice. Lin Yutang, a world-famous translator and a writer both in English and Chinese, have made great contributions not only to translation studies but also to communication between Oriental and Occidental cultures. In an era when inter-cultural communication is becoming increasingly important, a study of Lin's attitudes towards "foreignness" in the source culture and his translation strategy accordingly is necessary.Previous studies on Lin Yutang are often about specific translation strategies employed in his works or his cultural transmission. This thesis, conducts a descriptive study on Lin Yutang's translation, mainly C-E translation from the perspective of translation ethics, especially the ethics of difference. It focuses on foreignization in Lin's translation activities. Foreignization here is different from its common meaning. Usually, foreignizing translation is regarded as word for word translation and is contrary to domesticating translation which is considered as sense for sense translation. No matter it is domestication or foreignization or it is literal or free translation, they all have been discussed and studied as specific translation strategies. However, in this thesis, foreignization is not just a translation strategy but more a translation ethics in translating between languages and cultures. As language and cultural differences or even conflicts are inevitable in translation, how to deal with these differences is a matter of ethics. A translation is ethical if the differences and foreignness of the source text and culture is respected and retained and unethical if eliminated or dissolved for the culture other should not and can not be eliminated, otherwise the world would become a monotonous one without any diversity. On the other hand, different cultures can only try to exist peacefully with each other and learn from each other and seek the goal of common prosperity.The ethics of difference is put forward by Lawrence Venuti to resist against the prevailingly ethnocentric practice in translation, the "culture narcissism". It is a moral attitude towards the culture other in translation. He argues that in translation the culture other should be respected and the translator should try to retain the foreignness or otherness of the source language and culture and convey it to target readers so that readers can appreciate the foreign flavor of the source language and culture. Not only that, only through the retaining of foreignness can there be genuine communication, without which the two parties can neither really understand each other nor themselves. The only result would be intolerance and ignorance and narcissism due to a narrow horizon.Lin Yutang, with promoting communication between China and the West as his lifetime ambition, actively employed "foreignization" in his translation activities, from the choice of texts to that of translation strategies. In terms of choices of texts, he took the initiative of choosing texts characteristic of the Oriental or the Occidental culture. As space is limited, this thesis mainly focuses on Lin's C-E translation activities. In C-E translation activities, Lin Yutang purposefully chose works reflecting best the spirit and essence of Chinese culture and Chinese people's way of life such as Confucius and Chuangtze's works and many others for he knew perfectly the vast difference between China and the West both in style and way of thinking and in values, etc. Besides, cases of "foreignization" are abundant in his works from translations of culture-loaded words to unique phrases and expressions as well as some sentences and paragraphs. These will be carefully analyzed in respective chapters.This thesis aims to contribute to the current research of translation ethics and displays the importance of translation ethics in translation; meanwhile, it serves as a new view on Lin's translation, which, the author hopes, will draw forth more worthy research on this respect.