Vol. 58:4 (2012) ► pp.471–487
Exploring Cultural Transmission and Translation Strategies in the Perspective of Functionalist Approaches: A case study of the two English versions of Hongloumeng
This paper attempts to apply the functionalist approaches to a comparative study of the two English versions of Hongloumeng in terms of the translation of culture-specific items. The author tries to explore the important role the translation skopos and translation brief play in the choice of translation strategies and offers some comments on the legitimacy of these strategies employed.
The analysis of the translation of culture-specific items is conducted in the following five subcultures: ecology, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture.
Through both a qualitative analysis and quantitative data in which 190 samples covering five cultural categories are collected randomly from the first 80 chapters, the research reveals that the two translators of Hongloumeng employ different strategies in most cases, namely, the Yangs mostly adopt foreignization in order to introduce the Chinese cultural heritage, while Hawkes employs domestication with a purpose of reaching out to the target reader.
Résumé
Cet article cherche a appliquer les approches fonctionnalistes a une etude comparative des deux versions anglaises de Hongloumeng pour ce qui concerne la traduction d’elements specifiques a la culture. L’ auteure cherche a explorer le role important que le skopos et le briefing de la traduction jouent dans le choix des strategies traductionnelles et enonce certains commentaires sur la legitimite de ces strategies utilisees.
L’ analyse de la traduction d’elements specifiques a la culture est menee dans les cinq souscultures suivantes : ecologie, culture materielle, culture sociale, culture religieuse et culture linguistique.
Grace a une analyse qualitative et a des donnees quantitatives dans lesquelles 190 echantillons couvrant cinq categories culturelles sont tires au hasard des 80 premiers chapitres, la recherche revele que les deux traducteurs de Hongloumeng emploient des strategies differentes dans la plupart des cas : les Yang adoptent le plus souvent une etrangeisation pour presenter l’heritage culturel chinois alors que Hawkes a recours a une domestication pour etablir un contact avec le lecteur cible.
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.58.4.07wan
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