Domestication and foreignization : a systematic review of the strategies used for a memoir translation

• Main Author: Wu, Zeyuan
• Other Authors: Helena Gao
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Language
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142701
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This research reviews the translation strategies of domestication, foreignization and the middle way of the two strategies (The Middle Way) in a Chinese translation of the memoir Surprised by Joy with the two focuses: 1) choices among the three strategies, and 2) translation aesthetics in the implementation of these three strategies. The systematic review shows that at the thematic level, domestication is a better strategy for reflective narrations, while foreignization and The Middle Way are strategies desirable for descriptive narrations, and that at the level of language use, aesthetics can be factored in for the implementation of foreignization and The Middle Way. The research is useful in twofold. First, it is an exploration of the feasibility of foreignization. Second, while translations can be intuitively done, a systematic review of these translation strategies can identify pitfalls of such a manner of translation.