chapter9、10、11

wenyikk

Reader: 文心怡
Reading Time: 12-14weeks
Reading Task: Chapter9、10、11
Summary of the Content：
Chapter 9: Focuses on the translator’s "invisibility". Lawrence Venuti proposes two strategies: domestication (adapting to target cultural values) and foreignization (preserving foreign cultural features). He advocates foreignization to resist cultural hegemony. Antoine Berman criticizes 12 deforming tendencies in translations, while the chapter also covers the influence of the publishing industry and critics on translation.
Chapter 10: Explores philosophical perspectives, including George Steiner’s "hermeneutic motion", Ezra Pound’s emphasis on linguistic energy, Walter Benjamin’s "pure language", and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. The core argument is that translation is essentially the interpretation and reconstruction of meaning.
Chapter 11: Defines translation studies as an interdisciplinary field. Mary Snell-Hornby attempts to integrate boundaries between literary and non-literary translation, and the chapter discusses interdisciplinary practices and the impact of technology on the discipline’s future.
Evaluation：
Strengths: Coherent theoretical framework, integration of macro theories with real-world contexts, and a distinct interdisciplinary perspective.
Weaknesses: Obvious Western-centric bias, obscure philosophical concepts in some parts, and limited guidance for practical translation skills.
Reflection：
Translation involves both linguistic conversion and cultural stance; strategy selection should align with text types.
Interdisciplinary knowledge is core to translation studies, and more non-Western cases need to be incorporated.
In the technological era, a balance must be struck between machine translation and the translator’s subjectivity.