Translating Culture-specific Items

Due to differences in geographical location, social system, religious belief, life style, and way of thinking, etc., people in different nations have developed their own specific cultural heritages. When literary works conveying these heritages are translated into a foreign language, culture-specific items are often identified as a factor that hinders effective communication. Accordingly, to achieve a better understanding of the culture-specific item and of strategies of its faithful translation, so to speak, calls for a rigorous study on the part of translation practitioners and researchers. This thesis is an endeavor in that direction.In reaction to the cultural turn in translation studies that emerged in the 1990s, this thesis sets off by analyzing the relationship between language, culture and translation from the perspective of cross-cultural communication. Briefly put, language and culture are two intimate concepts with the former being the mirror of the latter and is influenced by it; translation is an important activity of cross-cultural communication that engages cultural transference through language. Given the importance of the culture factor in translation, the culture-specific item, a key cultural factor, has long attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad, who have proposed a variety of constructive strategies in translating such item, but thus far seem not to have reached consensus. Their views are summarized in this thesis.Nahan, a famous short story collection by Lu Xun, father of modern Chinese literature, contains abundant cultural elements about the China of the early 20th century, which therefore serves a good test stone for translation effectiveness. But how should the translator do to convey the cultural information involved as faithfully as possible but without causing any information cramming or trouble in comprehending? Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang are believed to have executed the undertaking to such capacity. This thesis examines, in the light of the culture classification proposed by Eugene Nida and Peter Newmark, the Young's strategies in translating the culture-specific items in Nahan,the results of which are epitomized herein as reference for future practice and study.