Foreignization In The Translation Of Folk Culture: A Case Study Of Lu Yao’s The Ordinary World(excerpt)

The present translation report mainly analyzes foreignization in the translation of folk culture in Lu Yao’s novel, The Ordinary World. As is known to all, translation cannot be simply regarded as a shifting from one language to the other – because language usually contains culture. Translation should not and cannot be dissociated from culture. Therefore, appropriate methods adopted in translating culture, especially folk culture, seem rather significant in the process of spreading local culture to the outside world. In this report, there are total five parts. In the first part, the close relationship among language, culture and translation is introduced. In the second part, several distinct features of both culture and folk culture are summarized and listed. Besides, essentials and necessities of translating folk culture are also analyzed. The third part reviews literatures related to translation of culture and folk culture done by other scholars. Moreover, the strategy adopted in translating The Ordinary World(excerpt) – foreignization strategy – is introduced. It is believed that in literary translation, the combination of foreignizatin and domestication can be a better way, which means to apply foreignization to translating culture related images to preserve the cultural features and thus to popularize the culture of source language, and domestication to the rest of the content to make the translation fluent and native. The fourth part, as the central part of the report, analyzes the translation methods employed in translating the novel. It is discovered that to translate the words related to local customs, the method of transliteration with explanatory notes is frequently adopted while to translate words on other aspects of folk culture, methods like literal translation and interpretive translation are usually employed. In the end, the report draws a conclusion in the fifth part and put forward the wish that more translators could translate folk culture related works.