Author: Wong Laurence
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
E-ISSN: 1569-9668|59|3|360-380
ISSN: 0521-9744
Source: Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation, Vol.59, Iss.3, 2013-01, pp. : 360-380
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
If one is to draw up, in order of usage frequency, a list of words whose authority has most often been invoked in translation studies during the past decades, domestication and foreignizing will most likely appear at the top. When they were first coined or given their new signifiā, these words may well have been applicable to the approaches or strategies used by certain translators in certain periods, certain cultures, or certain parts of the world. One should not, however, be misled into thinking that they are applicable to all translators or all translations, for, apart from the “domesticating” and “foreignizing” approaches or strategies, there is a wide range of other possibilities into which the vast majority of translations can fall, and to which the concepts of “domestication” and “foreignizing” do not apply.This paper looks at Monkey, Arthur Waley’s English translation of the classical Chinese novel Xi you ji (Journey to the West), and shows how the above-mentioned concepts are not universally relevant, and how the translator, as an empathic and creative mediator, moves freely between the source language / culture and the target language / culture to seek the golden mean with respect to the effectiveness of the translation in artistic and communicative terms, neither “domesticating” nor “foreignizing.”
Related content
The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, Vol. 4, Iss. 2, 2018-01 ,pp. :
Activating, seeking, and creating common ground
By Kecskes Istvan Zhang Fenghui
Pragmatics & Cognition, Vol. 17, Iss. 2, 2009-01 ,pp. :
Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 6, Iss. 3, 2007-01 ,pp. :