On Translation Strategies Of Culture-loaded Words And Expressions In Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out From The Skopos Theory

As words serve as important element of language and culture, they inevitablycarry cultural background with the development of language. The translation ofculture-loaded words, one of the difficulties in translating literary works, deservesmore attention to its deep studies.Taking the Skopos theory as the theoretical foundation, this thesis would studythe translation strategies of culture-loaded words and expressions in Goldblatt’s Lifeand Death Are Wearing Me Out (hereinafter referred to as Life and Death). In thenovel, Mo Yan has employed a great deal of words with Chinese traditional cultureand characteristics of the era. Although the translator has adopted differenttranslation strategies, his purpose has always been the same. Through the translationof Life and Death, Goldblatt intends to introduce Chinese culture and customs intothe western countries in order to broaden the target readers’ vision towards China.In the thesis, the translation strategies of culture-loaded words and expressionsin Life and Death are discussed and how the skopos theory affects the choicebetween documentary translation and instrumental translation are studied. Meantime,how the translation skopos of Goldblatt’s Life and Death is achieved will bepresented. Through analyzing the translator’s choice of translation strategies, theconclusion is arrived: in translating culture-loaded items, the translator has mostlyadopted documentary translation with instrumental translation only as thecomplementary strategy.