Foreignization Strategy In Chinese Contemporary Literature Translation

In the history of translation theory, disputes over foreignization or domestication have always been a heated topic. Ever since Susan Bassnett points the cultural turning in translation theory in1980s, more and more theorists connect translation researches to gender, political, cultural and ideological researches.The term "foreignization" was firstly put forward by the post-colonial translation theorist Lawrence Venuti in contrast to "domestication" in1995. He was inspired by the German translator Schleiermacher’s description of translation to leave the writer alone as much as possible and move the reader toward the writer. Venuti defines foreignization as a translation strategy to break the cultural criterion in target text (TT) by keeping elements in the source text (ST). It accommodates and assimilates the linguistic and cultural characteristics to develop certain theories and practices as well as to resist the dominant culture in order to highlight the cultural discrepancy between the two nations.Against the background of globalization and the uprising of culture infiltration, translation theorists have reassessed the need of foreignization translation strategy, for they have realized that a uniformed culture cannot satisfy the need of cross-cultural communication. In this respect, it is necessary to make clear the concept of foreignization and testify the importance of foreignization.The reasons why To Live is chosen are as follows. To begin with, Yu Hua is a representative and influential Chinese novelist, and To Live is his masterpiece. Secondly, the novel is a miniature of China’s contemporary history and full of colloquial idioms, slangs, proverbs loaded with Chinese culture, presenting Chinese conventional values to readers. Last but not least, the English version To Live translated by a foreign scholar, Michael Berry, is a best-seller in America, which leaves us much thought on why it is so popular among target readers.By comparing and analyzing the examples from original and English version, especially some typical cultural-bound words, expressions, sentences even paragraphs with their connotation and denotation, the author intends to expose how foreignization strategy can convey the original form, style, culture even figures of speech. Translation does not merely the transition in linguistic level but the conversion of national cultures. Foreignization can help target readers to understand the background, origin, and core value of the source text country and mitigate cultural shock and conflict. Meanwhile, foreignization can promote and enrich the language and culture of target country. In this sense, tendency of foreignization in literature translation will be promising and eventually prevail.