A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of The Happy Prince From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

The Happy Prince is a story for children written by British poet and playwright Oscar Wilde and is collected in The Happy Prince and Other Tales.This collection was later translated into many languages and welcomed by readers worldwide.The Skopos Theory is the core of functionalist translation theory proposed by German functionalists.According to the Skopos Theory,translation should serve certain purposes(skopos)of the texts without being restrained by the source language or author.It’s the purpose of the text that determines the translation process.This thesis aims to analyze Ba Jin and Wang Lin’s translations of The Happ.y Prince from the perspective of Skopos Theory.With three fundamental rules,namely the Skopos rule,coherence rule and fidelity rule,this thesis studies on specific examples in the two versions.The research finds out that Ba Jin’s version aims to reveal the dark side of the society and reflects people’s suffering while Wang Lin tends to educate the younger generation and develop children’s literature.Therefore,the two versions reflect different translation strategies,presenting different styles.