On Translation Strategies Of Cultural Elements From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Based on Skopos Theory as the theoretical framework, this thesis selects Mo Yan’s Life and Death are Wearing Me Out of English version by Howard Goldblatt as the research object. After Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature, his works have attracted more and more attention. Translation plays an important role for him and the quality of the translation is directly related to the author’s reputation both at home and abroad. So far, all the English versions of Mo Yan’s works translated by Howard Goldblatt, Life and Death are Wearing Me Out is one of them. Since the 1970s, with the development of the western linguistics translation theory, the German translation theorist Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer proposed by the translation Skopos Theory. They think that translation is based on the original text, it has purpose and the purpose of translation determines translation strategy. The purpose of translation is the highest principle in translating process. The theory provides a new perspective for the translation; it plays an important role of inspiration and guidance for cultural elements translation. In the translation research, it has important theoretical and practical significance. With the increasing of cultural exchange, people also put higher request on the translation. Not only require the beautiful words, but the most important is to transmit the culture information accurately. It demands the translator understand the difference between the two cultures deeply, and know the cultural connotation. Only in this way can the translators express the cultural elements.The thesis discusses Nida’s classification of cultural factors, the author divides the cultural elements of Life and Death are Wearing Me Out into four categories:material culture, social culture, religious culture and language culture. This thesis attempts to make a descriptive analysis on cultural translation strategy in Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, and intends to explore how the translator chooses the translation strategy in terms of different translation skopos.The thesis finds that Howard Goldblatt’s English version applies the Skopos Theory, especially skopos rule. He gives full consideration to the foreign readers’reading habits and the ability of acceptance. In the translation process, Howard Goldblatt adopts different translation strategies and methods according to the different translation purpose. He accurately represents the original culture and reaches the expected purpose of translation. Thus he spreads the Chinese culture and meanwhile promotes the understanding of Chinese culture. His handling of translation strategies in the translation provides a good reference for other translations of Chinese literature.