Exploring cultural transmission and translation strategies in the perspective of functionalist approaches : a case study of the two english versions of hongloumeng

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This paper attempts to apply the functionalist approaches to a comparative study of the two English versions of Hongloumeng in terms of the translation of culture-specific items. The author tries to explore the important role the translation skopos and translation brief play in the choice of translation strategies and offers some comments on the legitimacy of these strategies employed. The analysis of the translation of culture-specific items is conducted in the following five subcultures: ecology, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture. Through both a qualitative analysis and quantitative data in which 190 samples covering five cultural categories are collected randomly from the first 80 chapters, the research reveals that the two translators of Hongloumeng employ different strategies in most cases, namely, the Yangs mostly adopt foreignization in order to introduce the Chinese cultural heritage, while Hawkes employs domestication with a purpose of reaching out to the target reader.