Translating The Style Of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn: A Functionalist Approach

The linquistic stylistics holds that deviations make style. Taking Skopostheorie (the theory that applies the notion of Skopos to translation) as the theoretical framework, this thesis conducts an investigation into the translation of the phonological, lexical and grammatical deviations of Mark Twain's masterpiece the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with the findings that the translators active in different eras bear different purposes (Skoposi) for the production of the target texts, which lead to their diverse choices of strategies and methods in terms of the translation of style, and that both of the versions are equally successful as they can be justified by their respective Skoposi. Base on these findings we suggest that the translators should not take the translation of style as something spontaneous and instinctive, which means that they should be fairly conscious about what Skoposi to be held and what concrete strategies to be taken before they are committed to a translation. It is also suggested that the static, illusive criteria "equivalence" be replaced by a more dynamic and practical yardstick-"adequacy" in evaluating the effects of the translation of style.