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Foreignness and Familiarity: An Investigation into the Effects of Foreignization and Domestication in Translation
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- Author / Creator
- Carvalho Henriques, Helena
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An important issue in translation studies is the extent to which a translator should “naturalize” a narrative - by changing proper names and cultural references, for instance - to match the background of the reader. Venuti (1986), among others, has speculated as to how readers experience texts submitted to such strategies. The present study provides an empirical examination of whether different translation strategies actually affect readers’ reaction to the plot and characters. Two versions of a translated story were compared: one in which lexical items were “foreignized,” that is, clearly marked as coming from an unfamiliar Latin American culture, and one in which those items were naturalized so that they matched the readers’ North American background. The results suggest that although readers identify the foreignized stories as more culturally distant, this awareness does not have an impact on their evaluation of the characters or plot events.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2013
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Arts
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.