A Study On The Translation Of Cultural Terms In Wolf Totem From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Translation studies has been approached from various perspectives over the past three or four decades.The functionalist approach including Skopos Theory was advanced in Germany in the 1970 s and 1980 s.Hans J.Vermeer's Skopos Theory proposes that the translational purpose determines the translation activity and translation strategy.Theoretically,it shifts the focus of study from the source text to the target text and puts more emphasis on the translator.It is the translator who is to decide upon the translation strategy and method according to the translational purpose and function of the TT in the target-language culture.Lang Tuteng is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Jiang Rong.Set against the social background of Chinese Cultural Revolution,the novel depicts the life on the Olonbulag in Inner Mongolia that draws on Jiang's personal experience of the grasslands in the 1970 s as a Beijing student.Soon after its first publication in 2004,Lang Tuteng became popular with Chinese readers for its peculiar writing style and enchanting plots.Its English version Wolf Totem translated by Howard Goldblatt was published in 2008 by the Penguin Press and has enjoyed widely acclaim both at home and abroad.Taking Skopos Theory as the major theoretical basis,this thesis is intended to probe into the translation of cultural terms in Wolf Totem.It first attempts to get a deep insight into the factors affecting the translation of Wolf Totem,including the commissioner's translation brief,Goldblatt's views on translation and target-text receivers' acceptance to find out the skopos of translation.Then by citing examples,translation strategies and specific methods are elaborated to achieve the translation skopos and anticipated functions of the target text.Finally,it draws the conclusion that the translation of Wolf Totem is an integration of domestication and foreignization.Foreignization is used in order to maintain the peculiar Mongolian characteristics and Chinese flavor of the original writing,while domestication is adopted to make a natural and coherent target text to cater for English readers' acceptance and achieve effective cross-cultural communication.