Metaphor Translation In Tess Of The D'urbervilles From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Metaphor plays an important role in the literary works, such as adding aesthetic value, enhancing the theme and conveying more exactly to the readers. Metaphor has been studied for over two thousand years. However, traditionally, it was confined to rhetoric and regarded as a kind of linguistic decoration.This thesis analyzes the metaphor translation in literary works from the perspective of Skopos theory, and takes Tess of the D'Urbervilles as the example to take further study.Skopos theory insists that the Skopos is the most important theory. It determines the whole process of the translations. According to Skopos theory, the target text readers are one of the most important factors which determine the aim of the translation, because they have different culture-specific backgrounds, expectations and communicative needs. Furthermore, Skopos concludes three important rules: the Skopos rules, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. The most important rule influencing the translations is Skopos rule.This thesis tries to find the most effective metaphor translation strategies in literary works by analyzing the metaphor translations in Tess of the D'Urbervilles within the framework of Skopos theory.This thesis is composed of five parts: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Metaphor and literary works, (4) Application of Skopos Theory to the metaphor translation in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, (5) Conclusion.The first part introduced the research questions and purpose as well as the significance of metaphor translation.The second part, on the basis of brief review on Skopos theory and metaphor in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, we get a general understanding of these two fields which we will discuss in the thesis.The third part, elaborate metaphors from three aspects, definition, characteristics and classification of metaphor as well as the important role metaphor played in literary works.The fourth part, analyze the strategies of metaphor translation in Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the framework of Skopos theory.The fifth part, concluding the major achievements of this thesis and points out the effort we have to make in the future.