A Study of the Translation of The Joy Luck Club by Cheng Naishan

A Study of the Translation of The Joy Luck Club by Cheng Naishan

By Yu Shiqing

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Language and culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Li Xiaosa, for her instructive advice and useful suggestions on my thesis. Without her constant encouragement, this thesis would not have been possible.

My heartfelt gratitude also goes to all the professors who have taught me in my studies for their enlightening lectures from which I acquired tremendous knowledge of linguistics and translation.

I would also like to thank my roommates and friends who have put considerable time and effort into their comments on my drafts.

Last but not the least, I wish to take this chance to thank my beloved parents for their continuous support and encouragement.

A Study of the Translation of The Joy Luck Club by Cheng Naishan

Yu Shiqing

Department of English

School of Language and culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: This thesis is an attempt to study the Chinese version of The Joy Luck Club translated by Cheng Naishan, with reference to Lawrence Venuti’s domestication and foreignization theory. It is found that Cheng used both domestication and foreignization strategies to accomplish the translation. On the basis of sample analysis, it is found that domestication could be applied to demonstrate Chinese traditional images while foreiginization could be a better choice to show characters of Chinese American. Therefore, the author concludes that both domestication and foreignization are indispensable methods in the translation of Chinese American literature. Hopefully, this thesis may help translators use more appropriate ways to translate Chinese American literary works.

Key words: domestication and foreignization; The Joy Luck Club; translation

摘要

作为两种重要的翻译方法，劳伦斯·韦努蒂的归化和异化一直以来都是翻译界争论的焦点之一。本文运用归化异化翻译理论对小说《喜福会》程乃珊译本进行研究。经过分析发现，在翻译过程中，译者使用了归化与异化相结合的翻译策略。在分析例文的基础上，笔者认为在美籍华裔文学的汉译过程中，表现中国传统文化时应使用归化策略；而在表现美籍华裔人物特色时，异化不失为保留原文风格的最佳选择。因此，笔者认为归化和异化都是美籍华裔文学作品汉译过程中不可或缺的翻译方法，应加以灵活运用。希望本文能为译者在翻译美籍华裔文学作品时提供一些帮助。

关键词：归化与异化；《喜福会》；翻译

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Introduction to domestication and foreignization 2

2.2 Criticisms of domestication and foreignization 3

2.3 A review of previous study 4

3. An overview of The Joy Luck Club 5

3.1 Amy Tan 5

3.2 Translations of The Joy Luck Club 6

3.3 Introduction to The Joy Luck Club 7

4. Analysis of the Cheng Naishan’s version of The Joy Luck Club 9

4.1 Domestication in Cheng Naishan’s translation 9

4.2 Foreignization in Cheng Naishan’s translation 11

5. Conclusion 13

References 14

1. Introduction

Chinese American literature, as a distinctive form of world literature, has a history that can date back to the 1860s; however, it didn’t begin to flourish until the middle of last century. With the rise of civil rights movement, many outstanding Chinese American writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan began to make a figure. Amy Tan’s work The Joy Luck Club is an important symbol that signified the transition of Chinese American literature, which was accepted by the mainstream of American literature at that time. Since The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989, it led the Bestsellers List of the New York Times for nine months. Doubtless, the book is well received by a wide range of readers, especially the readers who have the same cultural background as the author’s. The book successfully plays a role as a bridge that bonds the culture of Chinese American and mainland Chinese.

Just like Chinese American literature, the discussion about translation strategies also has a long history. In translation of Chinese American literature, due to the reason that target text readers are mainly Chinese and western readers who are familiar with Chinese culture, many translators are apt to domesticate the source texts in order to propagate the Chinese culture elements in Chinese American literature. This thesis analyzes some examples from the source text and the translation from the perspective of domestication and foreignization, trying to address the question of how to use the strategies of domestication and foreignization to accomplish the translation of Chinese American literature works. Hopefully, it could promote cross-cultural communication and facilitate understanding between Chinese and American. It could be beneficial for translation students in their discussion of merits and flaws in works of predecessors.

This thesis includes five main chapters. Chapter 1 covers the objective of the research, the reason for choosing The Joy Luck Club and the theory to study. Chapter 2 provides a general review of Lawrence Venuti’s translation theory of domestication and foreignization, together with some criticisms and previous studies about this theory are introduced. Chapter 3 gives some background information of the novel, including a brief introduction of the famous author Amy Tan and the translators. It also provides a summary of the novel. Chapter 4 is the essential part of this thesis. In this chapter, Cheng Naishan’s Chinese translation version of The Joy Luck Club is analyzed based on domestication and foreignization theory. Examples will be taken from the ST and TT texts and studied from perspective of the two strategies respectively. Chapter 5 is a conclusion of the whole thesis.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Introduction to domestication and foreignization

Domestication and foreignization was firstly introduced by a famous American translator, Lawrence Venuti (1953- ) in his book The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. He said “foreignization is an approach that the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him” while domestication is one that the translator “leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him” (Venuti, 2004: 19-20). By developing these two terms, Venuti argues against the tendency of the transparent translation and invisibility of the translator. In his opinion, domestication is a derogative term. On the basis of Venuti's theory, Schuttleworth and Cowie (2004) define the term of domestication in their book Dictionary of Translation Studies in this way: “A term used by Venuti (1995) to describe the translation strategy in which a transparent, fluent style is adopted in order to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for TL readers...it is identified with a policy common in dominant cultures which are ‘aggressively monolingual, unreceptive to the foreign', and which he describes as being’ accustomed to fluent translations that invisibly inscribe foreign text with [target language] values and provide readers with narcissistic experience of recognizing their own culture in a cultural other” (Schuttleworth amp; Cowie, 2004: 43-44). Foreignizing translation in which a TT is produced which deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original” (Schuttleworth amp; Cowie, 2004: 59). Venuti regarded foreignizing translation as a challenge towards domestication and the function is to “register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text, sending the reader abroad” (Venuti, 2004: 20).

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