Abstract

Traditionally, translation lays its emphasis on language. Translators concentrate on the linguistic translation at the perspective of the word, phrase and sentence, instead of taking the significance of culture factor in the process of translation into consideration. As the communication between cultures increases, more and more scholars and translators focus on the role cultural factors plays in translation. Cultural translation theories home and abroad helps translation studies get rid of the limitation of pure linguistic translation and brings translation studies into a brand new level.

With the application of Susan Bassnett’s Cultural translation theory, this thesis analyzes “The Kite Runner” by an Afghan American writer, Khaled Hosseini and the two Chinese versions of Li Jihong and Li Jingyi. And it carries out a contrastive analysis of word translation respectively from the aspects of food culture and clothing culture, daily expression culture, Muslim culture and Afghan custom culture, which leads to the conclusion that to some degree, Li Jihong’s inclination to domestication and Li Jingyi’s inclination to foreignization both achieve the purpose of cultural transplantation . 

And this thesis contributes to providing a new dimension for the relative researches on “The Kite Runner”, and aims to improve translation ability, to promote the cultural communication between English and Chinese and to introduce Afghan culture to more people. 

Key Words: Susan Bassnett     Cultural Translation     The Kite Runner     Translation 

Contents

Abstract

摘要

An Analysis of Cultural Translation in The Kite Runner-1

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Research Significance-2

1.3 Overall Structure of the Paper-2

Chapter Two Literature Review-4

2.1 Previous Studies on The Kite Runner-4

2.2 Previous Studies on Li Jihong’s Version-5

2.3 Previous Studies on Li Jingyi’s Version-6

Chapter Three Theoretical Framework-7

3.1 Relationship between Language, Culture and Translation-7

3.2 Susan Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory-9

Chapter Four A Contrastive Analysis of the Two Chinese Versions from the Perspective of Cultranslation-12

4.1 Food and Clothing Culture-12

4.2 Word Culture-14

4.3 Muslim Culture-15

4.4 Afghan Folk Culture-16

Chapter Five Conclusion-19

5.1 Major Findings-19

5.2 Limitations of the Research-19

References-21