Analysis Of Translation Strategies Of Culture-loaded Words In Red Sorghum From The Perspective Of Scopostheory

The history of translation is quite long both in China and western countries.Literary translation studies from the cultural perspective have been neglected for along time because most of the previous studies focus on the linguistic aspectsconveying the source text and also the marginal status of literary translation studiesitself. As translation studies took the “cultural turn” in1980s, people began toevaluate translation from the cross-cultural perspective. Translation has beenreinterpreted as informational communication across languages and cultures.This thesis makes a tentative study on the translation strategies of theculture-loaded words and expressions of Red Sorghum in the light of Skopostheory,aiming to probe into the rationality of the translation strategies and methods adoptedby Howard Goldblatt.Culture-loaded words and expressions are those words, phrases and idioms,which are characteristics of distinct national colors and local flavors. It has alwaysbeen the hot-discussed problem in the translation circles that how to transfer the deepcultural connotations of these words and expressions to the target text readers andthen make them understand and accepted these culture-loaded words and expressions.German Functionalist Approach to Translation, produced in the1970s, holds thattranslation is a kind of action, and more, is a purposeful action. Vermeer, the founderof the core theory of it, points out that the primary factor determining the process oftranslation is the Skopos of the translation action. Therefore, the translators’ purposewill decide the concrete translation methods.Domestication and foreignization are the two main strategies in the translation ofcultural-loaded words and expressions. The question that which one is better has beenalways the discussing focus in the translation circle. The production of Skopostheoryprovides a practical guidance for the choice of the two strategies.This thesis will take the English version of Red Sorghum as the case study.Through the analysis on the translation strategies in it, the author draws theconclusion that the first thing to be taken into consideration is the translation skopos of the translator when discussing the translation of cultural elements, which willdetermine the main translation methods.