Functionalist Approaches To The Translation Of Children's Literature

This thesis applies functionalist theories to the translation of children's literature. Within the framework of functionalist theories, it analyzes the function and text type of two Chinese versions of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, with their skopos and translation brief as case study. In general, the translation of children's literature is expected to attract children's attention so as to realize the skopos of entertaining and educating them. Bearing this purpose in mind, the translators should take into consideration the text type and function of children's literature, and observe the corresponding translation brief in translating.From the perspective of functionalist theories, this thesis also probes into the translation problems that are commonly seen in the translation of children's literature through comparing two Chinese versions of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales. By analyzing these problems-linguistic, pragmatic and cultural translation problems in nature, the thesis concludes that the problems mainly result from the translators' ignorance of the purpose of the translation, and of the cognitive features of the target readers as well as their lack of cross-cultural awareness. Considering the function of the translation of children's literature, the author of the thesis recommends the principle of children-orientation, proposing simplification, adaptation, annotation, and domestication as effective translation strategies and methods.And this thesis is comprised of five chapters:Chapter One introduces the rationale of the study, research objectives and methodology, and organization of the thesis; Chapter Two reviews the characteristics of children's literature, the translation of children's literature and the study of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales in China; Chapter Three describes the development and main branches of functionalist theories; Chapter Four analyzes two Chinese versions of Wilde's fairy tales from the perspective of functionalist theories to explore the potential translation problems and find out effective solutions; Chapter Five presents the findings and the limitations of the research as well as suggestions for further study. The present study intends to help highlight the translation of children's literature, and to provide workable advice for improving translation so as to contribute to the development of children's literature.