Vlad Stepaniants
Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko university
Scientific supervisor: O. O. Barbaniuk, PhD
FOREIGNIZATION AND DOMESTICATION IN TRANSLATING MOVIES
The article is dedicated to two opposing strategies in the translation theory – domestication and foreignization, determined on the basis of the degree to which the translator seeks to bring the text closer to the norms of the host culture; oriented to achieve adequacy in the process of transmitting culture on the whole, the messages in movie industry in particular.
Keywords: translation, culture, foreignization, domestication, adequacy, equivalency, strategy.
The notions of “equivalency” and “adequacy” in the modern translation theory have been brought up since the early foundation of this brunch of knowledge which is considered to be trending nowadays as well. The basic importance of the translator’s intervention in the interpreting process formed the method diversity to render the information.
Any language is a result of human activity which preserves the mental and cultural peculiarities of a certain area. According to some language features, it may be possible for the decoder to comprehend the native’s perceiving the world. Thus, a translator is to preserve the cultural aspects of the source language as well as finding the appropriate equivalents in the target language taking into consideration the cultural differences and potential mishaps between some notions or even their absence.
- Nida and C. Taber highlight that if something may be said in one language, it will be conveyed into another [5, p. 1]. However, the main point of this process should be the possibility to achieve the maximum translation effect by holding as much information as the language and its form allows. That is why some peculiarities of the source text are so complicated for a translator to achieve adequacy because of the cultural influence of the language accompanied by its type.
There are some different opinions between scholars on what should be accepted as adequate and equivalent translation. For example, adequacy is believed as the functional identity of original text comparing to equivalency that is only sense rendering [2 p. 92]. Nevertheless, in a broader meaning, these two concepts may be complemented saying that equivalent translation is to be the adequate one. Generalizing all mentioned above, the main idea of both terms is to make the text readable and understandable for decoders. To prove the counted theory, the requirements to translated text by English scholar A. Taylor – formulated in 1798 – are to be listed which say: 1) the source text and target text must be identical, 2) the author’s style must be preserved, 3) the target text must be easily comprehended [1. p. 89].
There are a big variety of translation methods and strategies used for rendering the information including foreignization and domestication considered to be the main ones located on the opposite poles of the reader’s orientation [3, p. 353]. Both concepts deal with the cultural-pragmatic and linguistic aspects of translation. These two notions were introduced by American scholar Lawrence Venuti (1995). According to Venuti, domestication refers to “an ethnocentric reduction of the foreign text to target‐language cultural values, bringing the author back home,” whereas foreignization is “an ethnodeviant pressure on those (cultural) values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text, sending the reader abroad.” [6, p. 55]. To put it differently, the first strategy deals with the influence and strangeness of the source language with finding equivalency in the target text, while the second one is orientated on preserving pragmatic and language peculiarities of the source text.
Venuti highly supports the Foreignization theory saying: “Foreignization translation in English can be a form of resistance against ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissism and imperialism, in the interests of democratic geopolitical relations.” On the contrary, E. Nida disagrees with Venuti’s point of view recommending producing a similar response in the target text and this is the very basis of his principle of equivalent effect [6, p. 55-57].
Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Domestication stands for easy readability of the target language, naturalness, and possibility of cultural assimilation. However, it is connected with avoiding of cultural aspects, absence of interpretation by the reader as well as peculiarity mishaps in the source language. The foreignization involves preferences as cultural features of the source text and intercultural learning along with negative side as perceiving problems and the possibility of the unnatural sound of the text [5, p.7-8].
Talking about foreignization and domestication aspects, we should take into consideration the globalization effect which has become actual nowadays. The interdependence between all cultures is getting stronger from day to day, which allows us to think over the foundation of general pop culture. This influence is brightly represented in the movie industry as one of the largest providers of multi culture. Being both visual and aural source of rendering, a movie may provide general aspects of the-country-producer culture letting the audience adopt some peculiarities to their society. On the other hand, the rapid appropriation may hint at the superior state of one’s culture and its effacement of another.
Another point of discussion is the movie’s target audience in achieving adequacy. Taking the multiplication industry, we should taken into account the children’s ability to perceive the information. Every movie as a written text contains a lot of realia words, slang expressions, idioms the works which can function only in the field of the source text language systems. That is why Venuti foreignization theory takes the lead because of complicated ways to find equivalents during the translation process, so adoption of alien features may be also adequate since there are no other possible variants. However, the special audience which is out of another culture must have the mishaps perceiving the information, therefore the domestication strategy has to be taken into account to find an appropriate meaning of some notions with losing the aspects of the source [4, p. 36-37].
To sum up, both foreignization and domestication strategies must be used during the translation process since the interpreter deals with cultural aspects. Consequently, the translator should be multicultural competent to render all pragmatic aspects. It is for the scholar to decide what strategy should be used translating the text to achieve the maximum equivalency and adequacy with the minimal losing risks of the source-text peculiarities.
References
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