历史文化视阈下的《论语》英译研究

On the English Translations of The Confucius Analects in the Historical and Cultural Context

20世纪下半叶开始勃兴的"文化研究"思潮更为关注当代文化中处于权力边缘的文化与话语群体,其批判矛头直指"西方中心主义"与文化霸权主义。翻译研究的文化转向则让中外翻译界更重视意识形态、诗学等因素对译本生成的影响及翻译活动所处社会的政治、经济、文化语境等翻译的社会属性。在翻译过程中,不同时期、不同国别、不同身份的译者,从自身及"他者"历史文化出发,在原语和目标语之间进行调适,确立符合其翻译目的的翻译策略与方法。从《论语》英译史及其英译发生的语境来看,《论语》英译大体上经历了从"西方中心主义"向"文化多元化"的历史文化语境转向,从归化以"求同"到异化以"存异"的渐变过程。

The trend of thought focusing on cultural research began to hold sway during the late half of the twentieth century. It was much more concerned with the cultural and discourse groups on the fringe of the power politics. The western centralization and the cultural hegemonism were the spearhead of repudiation. The cultural turn in translation studies enables translation circle to pay more attention to the influences of such elements as ideology, poetics and patronage etc. on the versions and the so-called social attributes including politics, economy and cultural context etc. in translation activities. During translating, different translators from diverse epochs, nations and status proceed from their specific perspectives as well as the ＂otherness＂ of historical and cultural background. They are adjusting between the source language and the target language in order to establish a set of proper translation strategies. In terms of the English translation history of The Confucius Analects and the historical and cultural context in which it took place, the translation has shifted from the western centralization to the cultural pluralism. Besides, it gradually developed from the domestication with seeking the common toward the foreignization with preserving the difference.