A Report On The Translation Of Culture-specific Items In Literature Works Under The Guidance Of Skopostheorie

The death of African-American Floyd at the hands of police brutality in 2020 sparked a massive wave of protests and demonstrations against racism in the United States.Against this social backdrop,the bestselling Black American author Shaka Senghor wrote his latest novel,Letters to the Sons of Society,an epistolary literary work.The first six letters of Letters to the Sons of Society were selected for this translation practice.In the book,the author tells the reader the story of his personal life in the form of letters to his sons.The translation of the novel will help Chinese readers keep track of relevant hot topics in the international community and explore deeper into the topics on racial discrimination in the United States.The selected chapters for this translation practice contain a large number of culture-specific items related to these topics,which involve a substantial amount of historical and cultural knowledge.This creates barriers to comprehension for Chinese readers.Aptly rendering these culture-specific items and conveying the historical and cultural knowledge behind them in the Chinese version is crucial for the target text reader to understand the original text and to achieve cross-cultural communication between the author of the original work and Chinese readers.To achieve this goal,the Skopostheorie guides the entire translation process.This theory directs the translator to identify the intended purpose(Skopos)of the target text(i.e.,to realize a cross-culture communication,to entertain the target text reader,and to promote the sale of the Chinese version of the novel,etc.)and identify the target text addressees.It requires the translator to follow the “three rules of Skopostheorie”(i.e.,the Skopos Rule,the Coherence Rule,and the Fidelity Rule)to achieve the “Skopos”(purpose)of the Chinese version and realize the source-text functions.According to the model of text functions in Skopostheorie,the translator categorizes these culture-specific items according to their primary function in the source text--referential,appellative,expressive,and phatic functions.Different translation strategies are proposed according to the different textual functions of culture-specific items,and translation strategies such as annotation,paraphrase,specification,generalization,adaptation,contextual amplification and substitution are used to solve the difficult translation problem of culture-specific items more effectively.This project shows that the Skopostheorie is not only perfect for guiding the translation of applied and practical texts but also possesses instructive and explanatory power for guiding the translation of literary works on contemporary topics,especially regarding culture-loaded texts.Different types of culture-specific items have their focused functions,and in the light of Professor Ke Ping’s translation strategies for cultural translation system,different strategies are applied to culture-specific items with their different functions.This report aims to give new insights into the study of literary translation under the guidance of Skopostheorie and provide valuable references on choosing effective translation strategies for culture-specific items,improving the accuracy and readability of translations,and achieving higher-quality translations of literary works.