A Study Of The English Translation Of Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Skopos Theory was proposed in the 1970s by German scholars who held that the purpose of translation determines the translation methods to be used. It includes three rules: skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is one of the representative works of Mo Yan. Through the eyes of various animals, it witnesses China’s rural social transformation from 1950 to 2000. Based on Skopos Theory as the theoretical framework, this thesis studies the translation methods in the English version of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out translated by Howard Goldblatt. This paper analyzes the translation purpose from the perspective of the original author, translator and target language readers respectively. It discusses the translation methods adopted in the translation and analyzes how the translation embodies the three rules of Skopos Theory. The author finds that the translator gives full consideration to the target language readers’ reading demand when choosing the translation methods. The translation can be well accepted by the target language readers and it retains the Chinese culture as much as possible in the meantime. So the translation of the novel can provide reference for the translation of other literary works. In addition, the translation embodies the three principles of Skopos Theory adequately and verifies the possibility that the Skopos Theory can guide the literature translation.