A Cultural Turn In Translation Studies 英语专业毕业论文.doc

A Cultural Turn In Translation Studies Thesis statement: A different cultural background hinders people in English-speaking countries from understanding Bai culture. In order to deal with this problem, the cultural turn should be successfully realized in translation. Abstract: Since a lot of foreigners come to Dali for tourism or business, most of them are touched by the beauty of the landscape of Dali, its wind, flowers, snow and moon, also its colourful local customs. And many of them become so interested in and eager to learn Bai culture and anything else of the Bai people, folk stories and Bai songs etc. Someone said, even a stone has a beautiful story in it, and a leaf from the tree can play a piece of nice Bai song here. But it’s a pity so many visitors fail to enjoy the beautiful Bai stories and songs, because of the blocks from the language, especially the puzzles from the differences between two types of cultures. Here, several cases from the translation of Bai folk stories and songs are given, then we try to analyse them from a cultural point of view, making a better translation, to build a smooth way for the people from English-speaking countries to learn about the Bai people and their culture. 1. A brief introduction to the Bai people and their culture 1.1 A nationality with over 3,000 years of history The Bai people are one of the oldest nationalities in Yunnan. “In 1957, some cultural remains of the Bronze Age (about 3,000 years ago) were found at Haimenkou in Jianchuan County, 15 bronze and copper articles, including a stone model for bronze axes were unearthed,”[i] even some fossilized rice, wooden building components, pillars and other parts are underneath. This indicates that formerly Bai people lived in houses of “Gannan” style which were built half on the water, half on the ground with the door opening to the land. And the archaeologists described a vivid picture for us, there was a village located along Jianhu Lake, people here lived on ri