The Purpose Decides The Version: A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

Children are the future of our country and children's literature is very important. Bing Xin once said that Children are small but children's literature is not small. Previously, most comparative studies of children's literature focused on where the differences lay between two translated versions and which one is more acceptable. In most cases, the classical versions received high praise. However, there are few people who have paid attention to the translated versions specialized for a certain age group. With the deep-going of the children's literature study, the few classical versions can hardly satisfy the needs of children in different maturing stages. It follows that a variety of translated versions of children's literature are needed. In answer to it, a lot of foreign children's literary works have been translated for the needs of children in different maturing stages. Behind each version is its own purpose of meeting the educational and entertainment needs of certain age group of children. It can be summarized that purpose plays a crucial role in the process of translation.Skopostheorie provides a new perspective for the translation of children's literature. Different versions are produced for different purposes, therefore purpose decides the version. From the perspective of Skopostheorie, the thesis, based on the characteristics of children's literature and language development of children, analyzed the merit and demerit of the two Chinese versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer through a comparative study on the level of sentences and paragraphs rendering, the tackling of cultural elements and vulgar words as well as the application of different translation methods.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction which includes the historical review and previous study of the translation of children's literature in China. Chapter two discusses the development of children and children's literature attaching great importance to the cognitive and language development of children. This chapter also expounds such related concepts as children's literature and the characteristics of children's literature. Chapter three is the theoretical framework in which a historical overview of Skopos and the Skopostheorie are introduced. Following the introduction is the research on rules of Skopostheorie, how Skopostheorie guides the translation behavior and the functions different roles (initiator, translator and target-text receiver etc.) played in the process of translation. A case study of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its two Chinese versions constitutes the main part of Chapter four containing firstly a preliminary research about the novel and its author as well as the two Chinese versions, and secondly an interpretation of the two translated versions under the principles of Skopostheorie, and thirdly the differences of the two versions acquired from comparative study and finally the application of the Skopostheorie in the translation. Chapter five concludes the thesis by putting forth the research finding, the limitation of the study and the suggestion for the further research.The author of the thesis advances after study that different versions are produced for different purposes, namely, for the service of needs of children in different maturing stages.