DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION IN TRANSLATING PROPER NAMES A comparative study on the case of Vietnamese translations of J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Rings"

Abstract

Translating proper names is a great challenge in fantasy literature translation, especially in a classic work as Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. So far, there have been a large number of studies on strategies to translate proper names but those on domestication and foreignization is quite limited. Studying the two Vietnamese translations of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Rings, this research was conducted to figure out the strategies which were dominantly– whether domestication or foreignization, were used to translate proper names in the first two chapters, as well as to explain the motivations of translators in using that strategy to translate the names, and finally is to discuss on the use of domestication and foreignization to translate literary fictive proper names in general. Document analysis, observed interviews and articles were adopted as the main instruments to collect data. The final outcomes indicate the prominent use of foreignization strategy on the 2003 translation “Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn”by Nguyen Nam and domestication strategy on the 2013 translation “Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” by Dang Tran Viet, Nguyen T.T.Yen and An Ly, notably when they are translated from a same English source text. The result from the recorded interview and articles reveals the different motivations between two translators groups, in terms of aesthetic attitudes, strategic attitudes, attitudes toward readers and attitudes toward writer’s requirements. All the initial results leads to the researcher’s conclusions on strategies and procedures should use to translate particular proper names such as non-english proper names, semantically transparent names, metaphoric names and non-descriptive with English-sounding names. Recommendations for further studies are provided.