Translation of Culture-Specific Items from the Perspective of “New Northeast Literature”: A Case Study of the English Translation of Moses on the Plain

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the translation strategies for culture-specific items in the English translation of Moses on the Plain, a representative work of “New Northeast Literature”, so as to provide a practical reference for the overseas reception of contemporary regional Chinese literature. Adopting Aixelá’s theory of culture-specific items as the core framework and incorporating the cultural classification models of Newmark and Nida, the study selects typical examples from four dimensions—ecological, material, social, and linguistic culture—for analysis. The thesis shows that the translator tends to employ retention strategies such as transliteration and literal translation for ecological culture-specific items; the absolute universalization strategy for material culture-specific items; a combination of literal translation and absolute universalization for social culture-specific items; and free translation and functional equivalence for linguistic culture-specific items. Overall, the translator seeks a balance between “cultural authenticity” and “reader acceptability”, prioritizing the readability and communicative intent of the target text.