Culture-Specific Items In Retranslation ——A Case Study Of The Joy Luck Club

Culture-specific items,abbreviated to CSIs,are a topic discussed in the field of translation studies.Previous research on its definition presupposes that a culturespecific item is written in one language and points to the culture in which this language is used.The situation when a culture-specific item has different origins of culture and language is barely discussed.This thesis compares translations of and respective strategies used for two kinds of CSIs from the novel The Joy Luck Club written by Amy Tan in 1990,and observes translation tendencies（foreignizing or domesticating）of two groups of CSIs in three Chinese versions in the framework of the Retranslation Hypothesis.Several issues are addressed and they are:what strategies are adopted to translate CSIs;do strategies vary in translating different kinds of CSIs and among three versions;how do tendencies of three versions stand in relation to the Retranslation Hypothesis.It is found in the results that:eight strategies are used to translate Chinese and nonChinese CSIs in three versions;there are significant differences in dealing with two groups of CSIs in vertical comparison（within each version）and some similarities in handling the same group of CSIs in horizontal comparison（across versions）.In relation to the Retranslation Hypothesis,translations of Chinese CSIs are domesticating and those of non-Chinese CSIs are foreignizing.Both of them fail to follow the claimed tendency of being more and more foreignizing.Based on data from The Joy Luck Club,it is found that definitions of CSIs given previously are not precise enough and this concept is revisited.A CSI refers to words,phrases,or other textualized expressions,which 1)refer to concepts,objects,or facts from one culture,which are specific and outstanding when being posited in another culture,whether in the form of non-existence or different names for one reference;2)function to imply what can be concerned as specific to cultural context;3)include two kinds of situations:CSIs with the common origin of culture and language and CSIs with the separation of these two.This study revisits the definition of CSI in a more precise manner according to the examination of different data.Meanwhile,putting CSI translation in the framework of the Retranslation Hypothesis is helpful in getting a deeper understanding of the RH.