抄録
This paper is based on my M.A. thesis in which I carried out a research on
foreignization within the Japanese context. Foreignization (Venuti 1995, 1998),
an important concept in Translation Studies, often seems to be confused with a
translation technique: the literal approach (Fawcett 1998). This article attempts to offer
a detailed theoretical insight into foreignization along with the literal approach and to
redefine the concept of foreignization in its own sense, by focusing on its archaic usages
in both English and Japanese translations. As foreignization tends to put more emphasis
on the ideological pressure against the target-language culture than on the faithfulness
to the original text, it seems difficult to find examples of foreignizing translation in
Japanese. It can be due to the fact that there is little sign of cultural ideological
superiority in Japan (UNESCO 1998) and the language is rather heterogeneous than
homogeneous (e.g. a Japanese deviant discourse based on European texture typically
found in the contemporary Japanese, indicated by Kisaka 1987). It is now safe to state
that the concept of foreignization seems to only apply to a very limited context
(particularly in the dominant contemporary American cultural agenda). It, therefore,
needs to be reconsidered especially within non-English translations.
