The Translation Theory of Lawrence Venuti
The Translation Theory of Lawrence Venuti Three Main Works
Rethinking Translation: Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology(1992)反思翻译：语篇，主体性与意识 形态 The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation(1995)译者的隐形：一部翻译史 The Scandal of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference(1998)翻译的丑闻：差异的伦理
Summary
Lawrence Venuti advocated the foreignizing translation and refused the fluent version. He insisted in presenting the differences of the original in translations. The resistance translation is against the ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissim and imperialism.
The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference
Venuti continues to insist on foreignizing or “minoritizing” translation, to cultivate a varied and “heterogeneous异种的 discourse”(Venuti 1998:11). Thus an adequate translation would be the one that would highlight the foreignness of the source text and instead of allowing the dominant target culture to assimilate the differences of the source culture, it should rather signal these differences.
According to Lawrence Venuti, every translator should look at the translation process through the prism棱镜 of culture which refracts折射 the source language cultural norms and it is the translator’s task to convey them, preserving their meaning and their foreignness, to the target-language text.
“An ethnodeviant pressure反我族主义的压力 on [target-language cultural] values to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text, sending the reader abroad（Venuti,1995:20）.” “Foreignizing translation in English can be a form of resistance against ethnocentrism and racism, cultural narcissim文化自恋 and imperialism, in the interest of democratic geopolitical relations（Venuti,1995:20）.”
The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation
According to Venuti, the domesticating strategy “violently” erases the cultural values and thus creates a text which as if had been written in the target language and which follows the cultural norms of the target reader.
The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference
Domestication and foreignization deal with “the question of how much a translation assimilates a foreign text to the translating language and culture, and how much it rather signals the differences of that text"(Wikipedia).
The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation
“Faithful rendition is defined partly by the illusion of transparency”. Foreignizing translation is “likely to encounter opposition from publishers and large segments of Anglophone readers who read for immediate intelligibility”. This leads to a climate in which "fluency" is the most important quality for a translation and all traces of foreignness or alterity他异性 tend to be purposely erased.
The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation
Venuti uses the term “invisibility” to describe the position of translators in Anglo-American culture英美文化. And he thinks it is not fair for the translators to be in the secondary position, but should be visible in the translation. So he criticizes the traditional canon of domestical translation, which leads to the fluent and transparent translation, and advocated the foreignizing translation.
References:
1. Venuti, Lawrence, The Transl: A History of Translation. London: Routledge, 1995. 2. Venuti, Lawrence, The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. Manchester: St. lerome Publishing, 1998.