A Comparative Study of Two English Versions of Hong Lou Meng in the light of Domestication and Foreignization

Abstract

The debate about domestication and foreignization has been an ongoing focus in the field of translation, which, however, never prevents them from being employed as two main strategies in practice. The translation of Hong Long Meng is a good case in point. This great work has been translated into many different languages ever since its birth, of which, A Dream of Red Mansions by Mr. and Mrs. Yang and The Story of the Stone by David Hawke are the most widely accepted. Data for analysis are selected by comparing and categorizing the selected samples from the original work and the two English versions. The study finds that the Yang’s are foreignization-oriented to show Chinese culture to the readers, whereas Hawkes’ is more of domestication to retell the story to readers. Besides, reasons such as, different cultural backgrounds, different translation purposes and different readers they address to, also account for translators’ different choices of strategies. This thesis concludes that translators should combine the two strategies to make their translation faithful to the original texts and produce a better interpretation to the target-readers.