A Study on Translation Strategies of Culture-Loaded Words in Wolf Totem from the Perspective of Skopos Theory

Abstract

Skopos theory holds that translation is a complicated, arduous and purposeful human activity, and the criterion of judging it should be whether the translator has used the appropriate translation strategies to accomplish the translation skopos accurately. Therefore, due to different skopos of the translator himself, there may be multiple versions of the same source text exist for different skopos. Based on the skopos theory, this thesis aims to find a more suitable translation method for Chinese culture-loaded words by analysing the translation strategies and specific translation methods adopted by Goldblatt in the English version Wolf Totem. Through a comparative study, the author found that the two translation strategies of foreignization and domestication are often used by Goldblatt in Wolf Totem. Through the analysis of a large number of examples, the author believes that this two translation strategies can help readers to understand the source text better, to achieve the translators’ translation skopos. This discovery may provide some references for the translation of Chinese excellent literary works in the future.