Abstract

Liaozhai Zhiyi is an encyclopedia of classical Chinese culture. It is regarded as the top of classical Chinese novel for it represents the ghost culture and beliefs in China. Liaozhai has been translated into English by both Chinese translators and target language translators. In these versions, different words and expressions are used to translate Chinese ghost culture loaded words and phrases. In order to explore the choices that the translators employed in their translation, the thesis explains the differences between China and western ghost cultures and compares the words and expressions of Chinese ghost culture in four different versions of Liaozhai from perspectives of domestication and foreignization. The result shows that the translators of Liaozhai mainly adopt the domestication method.

KEYWORDS:foreignization; domestication; ghost culture; Liaozhai

摘　要

《聊斋志异》是中国古典文学宝库中的百科全书，也被视为中国古典小说的代表作之一，书中集中体现了中华民族的鬼怪文化和鬼神信仰。此书多次被不同译者翻译成英文，其中包括原语译者和目的语译者。在不同英译本中，译者对书中具有中化民族特色的鬼怪文化翻译各不相同。为了探讨经典名著中鬼怪文化的翻译，作者试图从中西鬼怪文化的差异入手，选取了《聊斋志异》4个不同的译本，结合归化异化理论对不同译本中对鬼怪文化的不同处理方式进行对比分析。分析结果表明《聊斋志异》的译者们大都使用归化方法。

关键词:异化；归化；鬼文化；聊斋

1    Introduction
Nowadays, widespread attention has been paid to the translation of traditional Chinese literary works, for translation of classics will facilitate cultural protection and development. In the translation, one of the most difficult problems is the barrier of culture-loaded words and expressions. As Chinese and English are originated from two different cultures, many Chinese words have no equivalent in English. So many literary translation researches focus on the cultural factors in translation.
The western theories of translation started to be introduced into China around the 1970s. Among these translation theories, China’s translation circles began to focus on foreignization and domestication in the last two decades. As each strategy has its own potential pros and cons, a question must be addressed is which theory will be the preferred strategy of literary translation.