论文总字数：33603字

摘 要

由于中国与世界的文化交流日益加深与发展，将中国经典作品中的文化负载词准确翻译变得越发重要。这不仅能够将中国文化更好地传播给国外读者，并且也能增进中外文化的进一步交流。在翻译文学作品时，特别是翻译文化负载词时，归化和异化是处理文化差异的两种翻译策略。

《芙蓉镇》曾获得第一届茅盾文学奖。作者古华运用独特的叙述语言，新奇的艺术结构和大胆的绘真写实，描写了湘西农村独具特色的典型人物形象，给读者丰富地展现了当代农村生活的画卷。在1983年,《芙蓉镇》由戴乃迭翻译为英文，以A Small Town Called Hibiscus为名出版。

本文结合译者们在翻译中总结得出的归化与异化方法论，对翻译家戴乃迭的英译版《芙蓉镇》进行研究。通过本文对《芙蓉镇》中文化负载词的分析研究，作者希望能为中国经典文学作品中文化负载词的翻译研究略尽微薄之力，从而进一步加深国内外的文化交流，帮助中国优秀文化作品走向世界。

关键词： 文化负载词； 翻译策略； 《芙蓉镇》

Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Thesis Structure 1

1.3 A Small Town Called Hibiscus 2

1.3.1 Original Work and its Author 2

1.3.2 English Version and its Producer 3

Chapter 2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Domestication and Foreignization 5

2.1.1 Definition of Domestication and Foreignization 5

2.1.2 Selection of Domestication or Foreignizaiton in Translation of Literature 6

Chapter 3 Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Words in A Small Town Called Hibiscus 7

3.1 Culture-loaded words in A Small Town Called Hibiscus 7

3.1.1 Definition of Culture-loaded Words 7

3.1.2 Classification of Culture-loaded Words 8

3.1.3 A Quantitative Research of Culture-loaded Words 8

3.2 Domestication in Translation of Culture-loaded Words 9

3.3 Foreignization in Translation of Culture-loaded Words 12

Chapter 4 Conclusion 16

4.1 Main Findings 16

4.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study 16

References 18

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Furong Zhen, as a representative work of Gu Hua, who is a famous novelist in China today, has won the first Mao Dun Literary Prize. The author uses the distinctive way of uniquely narrative language, peculiarly artistic structure and realistic writing to describe the typical images in a southern county in Hunan Province in 20^th century. There were many particular representative culture-loaded words at that time, containing distinct features of the times.

Nowadays, because of the deeper and wider cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the accurate translation of culture-loaded words in Chinese literary works has become much more important. The translation of culture-loaded words helps to introduce our Chinese culture to foreign readers and it can also enrich the cultural exchanges between China and other countries. Ever since the publication of A Small Town Called Hibiscus by Gladys Yang, this English version has been very popular among the foreign readers and it is regarded as one of the most faithful and readable translations in Chinese translation history.

In translation practices, these two translation strategies of domestication and foreignization were widely used after being raised by Venuti in 1995. Through the study of culture-loaded words in A Small Town Called Hibiscus and their translation strategies, the author hopes to enlarge the knowledge of culture-loaded words and the research on their translation strategies.

1.2 Thesis Structure

Chapter One presents the research background and the overall structure of the thesis.

Chapter Two is literature review, which involves a brief survey on A Small Town Called Hibiscus and the theoretical framework of translation strategies. The former is divided into two parts, the first part is the introduction of Gu Hua and his great work Furong Zhen, and the second part is the previous study on its English version A Small Town Called Hibiscus and the translator Gladys Yang. The latter is the research contains the definition and the selection in translation of literature of domestication and foreignization.

In Chapter Three, first, the author expands on the previous studies on culture-loaded words, which is divided into two part: the first is the definition and the second is the classification. Then, quantitative research and detailed analyses are made on the translation of culture-loaded terms in A Small Town Called Hibiscus. The author will focus on the translation strategies and make comment on whether these strategies are successful in terms of accomplishing the intended effects.

In Chapter Four, the conclusion is divided into two parts. The first part is main findings in doing this research, and the second part is the limitations and suggestions for further research in this field.

1.3 A Small Town Called Hibiscus

1.3.1 Original Work and its Author

Gu hua was born in a small village in Jiahe, a county located in Western Hunan. He is a well-known writer and critic in contemporary Chinese literature.

Being regarded as one of the representatives of the “reflexive literature”, Gu Hua is thought to be influenced by Shen Congwen in the style of writing. The novels of two writers are full of regional distinctiveness. Furong Zhen is no exception. Traces of local taste of western Hunan can be abundantly found from the local dialect, local jokes, the folklore, singing-match customs and so on. All of these were scattered from the beginning to the end of Furong Zhen, which cause readers to image pictures of life there.

This novel presents the political and social changes from 1963 to 1979 in China. Instead of describing directly to the political movements during that period of time, Gu Hua focuses on the influence caused in the remote county. The writer reveals the damages made by political movements to the local customs as well as to the people's normal life. He makes the flagstone street as the main stage, an ordinary woman named Hu Yuyin who sells bean curd as its main character. This young woman has many good qualities: kind-hearted, diligent, gentle and charming. However, she also suffers from feudal ideology and "left" deviation and meets with many hardships in her life. Her fate is the main clue as well as the main content for the development of the main plot.

The author also describes some typical characters who have different social statuses and play different roles in the political movement along with the fate of Hu Yuyin. Her husband Li Guigui, who is honest, is driven to commit suicide in the movement. Li Mangeng, Hu Yuyin’s lover in youth, now as the party secretary, betrays her in the movement. Crazy Qin Shutian, as an iron hat rightist, has intimate terms with Hu Yuyin in the adversity. Gu YansHan, the manager of grain depot, who has helped Hu Yuyin do the beancurd business, suffers a lot for his help in the following political movements. Wang Qiushe and Li Guoxiang, as activists and leaders in every movement, persecute the people like Hu Yuyin. Everyone’s life is full of ups and downs in the class struggle.

1.3.2 English Version and its Producer

Gladys Yang and her husband Yang Xianyi are among the best well-known translators whose translation works are outstanding both in quality and quantity. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the couple cooperated and devoted themselves to introducing Chinese culture to the outside world.

At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s when The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) had just finished and China was going through a deep reform in all field, many new literary schools emerged in China. One is called “reflexive literature”, which reflects the great changes in China, such as Furong Zhen (GuHua,1981). These new literary schools attracted the western scholar's attention to contemporary Chinese literature.

In the year of 1981, Chinese Literature magazine began to publish the Panda Books of English and French version, which play an important role in introducing Chinese literature of in the past and at present. As one of the Panda Books, the English version of Furong Zhen (A Small Town Called Hibiscus) translated by Gladys Yang was first published in 1983. The publication of the English version of Furong Zhen (A Small Town Called Hibiscus) got great praise both at home and abroad. Gladys Yang’s translation is faithful to the original work both in content and spirit. She made great efforts to show the real image of China to her readers. Most of the translations of this novel in other languages are based on this English version.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Domestication and Foreignization

2.1.1 Definition of Domestication and Foreignization

Domestication and foreignization are two translation strategies. Which strategy to use depends on the degree of text conformity that the translator wants to make to the target language culture. Domestication is to make the text conform to the target language culture more closely, which strategy sometimes may deliberately lose some information from the original text. The strategy of foreignization is to retain information from the original text and it may break the target language rules to keep the meaning in the original text. The question of which strategy is better to use has been discussed for many years. In 1995, Lawrence Venuti developed these two strategies’ modern sense and introduced them to translation studies in his book The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. From Venuti’s point of view, the dichotomy between two strategies was an ideological one and foreignization is a more ethically choice in translation.

Venuti views that in most translation practices, domestication was more dominating. Translators tended to reduce the foreign culture conventions to cater to target language culture values by minimizing the foreignness in the target text, which was criticized by Venuti. He prefers foreignization for this strategy can impact target language culture values and allow readers to learn about the difference in language usage and culture in the original text. These effects can not be achieved by using domestication in translation, because the text translated in the strategy of domestication follows the target language culture norms, which removes the cultural values in the original text. Target readers should learn more about foreign cultural values by translation works instead of the simple content of the text, so it is better to highlight differences in translations.

2.1.2 Selection of Domestication or Foreignizaiton in Translation of Literature

Domestication and foreignization are the strategies frequently adopted in literary translation. Many scholars have different opinions on which one is better. Domestication mainly considers and treats the readers as the main focus. This strategy lets the readers in the target language easily understand and accept the translated works. However, domestication has limitations. It pays too much attention to the acceptance of the foreign readers. while foreignization preserves the original cultural information of the source language and it lets the readers learn more different cultures of foreign countries.

Domestication needs the translator to have good language ability and the bicultural ability. The translator should focus on the expression of the translated works. He or she should focus on readers’ acceptance to the translated works. The purpose is to make readers understand the meanings of the source text but not the forms and images of the source language texts, so that readers can better understand the meaning of foreign language.

Foreignization means that the translator should pay much attention to the aspects of source language and the writer in the process of translation. Foreignization supporters insist that the translator should keep the original culture or the original expression conveyed by the source language. The better way is to be faithful to the source text and introduce the original cultural expressions to readers.

In Gladys Yang’s translation, adaptation and omission are the embodiment of domestication while foreignization is reflected in literal translation, literal translation plus annotation and explanation. After the research, it is obvious that Gladys Yang mainly uses foreignization in her translation of culture-loaded words. The purpose is to convey the original flavor of the source language culture and advance the cultural exchanges between the East and the West.

Chapter 3 Translation Strategies of Culture-loaded Words in A Small Town Called Hibiscus

3.1 Culture-loaded words in A Small Town Called Hibiscus

3.1.1 Definition of Culture-loaded Words

In different cultures, there are always abundant particular words with specific cultural meanings and regional features. These words are called “culture-loaded words” which have three distinct characteristics as follows:

Firstly, for each certain culture, it has special culture-loaded words, which show particular cultural values. With the development of the country and the culture, local people have created numerous words with specific cultural implications. For instance, the words like “梅”、“竹”、“菊 ” can only be found in Chinese literary works.

Secondly, rich connotations are embodied in culture-loaded words. Take the Chinese character “龙” as example, “龙”, which in Chinese conveys positive and good connotations, represents auspiciousness and courage. However, for western people, “dragon” implies something bad, such as evil and atrocity.

Thirdly, culture-loaded words are difficult to find counterparts in other languages due to different social environment, religion and cultural images between Chinese and other culture. For example, “阴”, “阳” in Chinese means that everything has two sides of “YIN” and “YANG”. This can be easily understood by Chinese people, but if western readers are unfamiliar with Taoism, they will be confused.

All in all, for original text readers, culture-loaded words such as slangs, allusions and idioms, the implications embedded are easy and clear to understand. For translators, these culture-loaded words are great challenges because they can hardly find counterparts in target language and culture.

3.1.2 Classification of Culture-loaded Words

Culture has been divided into five groups by Eugene. A. Nida. They are ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. Accordingly, each group of culture has its culture-loaded words.

Ecological culture-loaded words include words which reflect the features of ecology elements like climate condition, plants and animals, while material culture-loaded words indicate material things like food, clothes and tools. Take the Great Wall as a concrete example of material culture-loaded words, it has become the representative of China for foreigners.

Social culture-loaded words includes various aspects in our social life, which is a quite comprehensive part. Words refers to politics, customs, social classes and other social elements are included. Next is religious culture-loaded words. This group of culture-loaded words reflect the religious traditions’ characteristics of a certain culture.

The last is linguistic culture-loaded words. As we all know that English and Chinese are in different language systems. These two language have specific grammatical, phonemic and formal systems. Linguistic culture-loaded words are used to reflect these characteristics.

3.1.3 A Quantitative Research of Culture-loaded Words

To make the analysis in the paper more clear and persuasive, the author has chosen some typical chapters (Chapter 3 amp;Chapter 4) which contain more culture-loaded words and then has analyzed the frequency and percentage of these two translation strategies applied in the translation of culture-loaded words. Here is the table of the statistic research:

We can see clearly which translation strategy is more usually applied in the translation of culture-loaded words from the table. In typical chapters the author chose, foreignization is used more frequently. The next two sections will analyze in detail how translation methods are used with examples.

3.2 Domestication in Translation of Culture-loaded Words

To substitute the source language which appears elusive and strange to target readers with easy-to-understand expressions that conform to the target readers’ cultural norms, approaches of domestication used by Gladys Yang have adaptation and omission.

a). Adaptation

Adaptation is to replace elusive words in original text with expressions which are easy to understand by target readers and more frequently used in the target language. This translation method can conform to the target readers’ cultural norms. Besides, the translation can keep its readability and be read more fluently.

There are many slangs and idioms in Furong Zhen, such as “短命鬼” and “井水不犯河水”. That is because the novel is set in a small country in western Hunan. The regional diversity lead to special language features in different areas. These natural Chinese expressions are difficult to be translated because of different language systems that English and Chinese belong to. To make sure that target readers can understand these Chinese idioms, Gladys adapted them.

(1) 把李国香气的哟，……芙蓉镇庙小妖风大，池浅王八多，窝藏坏人坏事，对她这个外来干部欺生。（古华, 2015: 8）

Li Guoxiang was furious.... Hibiscus was a small town but it had so many shady characters, all trying to pull the wool over her eyes. (Gladys, 2015: 24)

In the original text, Li Guoxiang compared the small town to a small temple with evil wind and a shallow pool with lots of tortoises. In Chinese, the slang “庙小妖风大，池浅王八多” means there are quite some foolish and bad guys in that small town. Li Guoxiang thought people in this town bullied her and she looked down on those bastards. Gladys adapts this slang because for us Chinese, we can easily understand the meaning of the slang. But for foreigners, if this slang is translated literally, they will be confused, especially to the word “tortoises”. In Chinese, tortoises not only stand for longevity, but also means assholes or cuckolds in Chinese slang. For foreigners, they just see tortoises as a slow but persistent animal. So, to avoid misunderstanding, Gladys chooses the method of adaptation here to conform to the target language habits.

1. “……你老哥还是原先的那个‘北方大兵’，一镇的人望，生了个蛮横相，有一颗菩萨心……”（古华, 2015: 120）

“... Brother, you’re still ‘the soldier from the north’ looked up to by the whole town. A rough diamond...” (Gladys, 2015: 165)

In the original text, “生了个蛮横相，有一颗菩萨心” means one person who looks cruel but actually is a warm-hearted and helpful guy. “菩萨心” can be translated literally into “ the heart of Buddha”, which may cause target readers’ confusion of the deep meaning. In western culture, “ a rough diamond” has similar meaning with “菩萨心” in Chinese, so Gladys adapts this term to show clearly Gu Yanshan’s character to target readers in more native way.

b). Omission

Omission is to delete some original contents when translation to avoid misunderstanding or unintelligibility. Gladys chose this method more frequently in the translation of Furong Zhen, which helped raise the popularity of the work among target readers. The reason for the use of this method is that Furong Zhen involves abundant culture-loaded words about Chinese traditions, historical allusions and so on, which always use unique Chinese expressions like reduplicating words. Some expressions may be hardly translated in target language. Even if they are translated, these words will be difficult to learn or cause misunderstandings. Then, omission will be a good choice in translation.

In the translation of Furong Zhen, when it refers to characteristic Chinese culture or some featured food, some expressions are omitted.

(1) ……何处何家所吃过的一顿最为丰盛的酒席，整鸡整鱼、肥冬冬的团子肉、皮皱皱的肘子、夹得筷子都要弯下去的四两一块的扣肉、粉蒸肉、回锅肉等等。（古华, 2015: 25）

So they devised a way to make up for their short rations by recalling the best meals they had ever had: whole chickens and fish, fat meat-balls and legs of pork... (Gladys, 2015: 45)

In the original text, the foods described like “团子肉”, “回锅肉” and “扣肉” are delicious specialities in China. Gu Hua uses reduplicating words like “肥冬冬” and “皮皱皱” to show us Chinese how attractive these foods are. These words are characteristic Chinese culture-loaded words which is difficult to find its counterparts in English. If the translator translates these words literally, these foods cannot tempt target readers’ interest. Gladys omits these reduplicating words and some other parts which may cause misunderstanding like “回锅肉”, “粉蒸肉” and “夹得筷子都要弯下去的四两一块的扣肉” to suit target readers’ reading habits. She retains a few of food names to introduce local flavor of western Hunan to target readers in a simple way.

1. “……什么青梅煮酒论英雄，关公杯酒斩华雄啦；花和尚醉打山门，……武松醉卧景阳冈碰上了白额大虫啦；吴用……宋江……”（古华, 2015: 117）

...then told the children stories of doughty drinkers, heroes of old like Wu song, who killed a tiger in his cups. (Gladys, 2015: 161)

In the original text, there are six heroes from Chinese classical literary works. Some of these heroes may be strange to target readers. For westerners, they may be more familiar with Wu Song, a character in the novel Outlaws of the Marsh. So Gladys chooses this representative hero here to let target readers know that Old Gu always told stories about heroes like Wu Song to the children when he was drunk. If Gladys explains all the heroes, the translation will be interminable.

3.3 Foreignization in Translation of Culture-loaded Words

From Gladys Yang’s translation strategies, we can see that the specific approaches of foreignization used by Gladys Yang have literal translation, literal translation plus annotation and explanation. These approaches can better introduce the cultural information of the source language to the target language.

a). Literal translation

Literal translation is a “word-for-word” translation method, which tacitly approves that target readers can easily understand the meaning this method implies. Instead of just providing the meaning of the original text to target readers, it follows the language form of the original text. It creates new target language forms which never exist before by adapting syntactic structures and idiomatic vocabulary usage of target language.

For instance, in A Small Town Called Hibiscus, there are quite a lot of words related to political movements of the times like “四人帮—— Gang of four”, “三反五反运动—— Three Anti or Five Anti Movements”, “大锅饭—— Communal canteen” and “土改根子—— Land-reform activist”. These cultural words are created in hard years in 20th century, which are rarely used even by us Chinese nowadays. In Gladys’ translation, we can see that these culture-loaded words are translated literally and directly. For these culture-loaded words with specific time features, it is very hard to explain to target readers about these words in a few lines. Even when the translator tries to explain these words, the explanation can be bothering for some readers.

1. 真是过河拆桥，翻脸不认人……（古华, 2015: 81）

They were tearing down the bridge after crossing the river, turning against their friends... (Gladys, 2015: 113)

“过河拆桥” is a Chinese idiom. Gladys uses literal translation here is acceptable, because the literal meaning can be easily understood by the target readers. This method is to reproduce the original meaning, which can let target readers know about Chinese particular thought patterns. Literal translation conveys specific Chinese culture to foreign countries.

1. ……真是对牛弹琴！一个二十好几的复员军人，这么蠢，这么混账。

It was really like playing a lute to an ox! How could a demobbed soldier in his mid-twenties be so dumb?

The term in Chinese means that someone’s efforts are in vain or the person who is talked with is stupid. The reason Gladys translates this term literally instead of adapting it is that “playing a lute to an ox” can create a vivid image in target readers’ mind. How can an ox appreciate music? It is impossible. Target readers can understand the meaning of this term easily and they will be interested in this expression.

b). Literal translation plus annotation

Compered to literal translation, this method not only can help target readers learn some new culture-loaded words literally and preserve the original flavor of the source text, but also it will let readers have a deeper understanding of these culture-loaded words.

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