Functionalism In Literary Translation

In the present thesis, the author has applied functionalist theory as the main theoretical framework to the comparative study of two English versions of Biancheng, probing into the application and significance of Functionalism in literary translation and evaluation. As a break from the equivalence-based linguistic translation approach, functionalist theory views translation as a purposeful intercultural action. Translation strategies are determined by the translation Skopos. The theory provides literary translation with multi-dimensional and dynamic criteria.The paper is divided into six parts. The first part is an introduction of the whole thesis. It sets the research background and puts forward the research questions. It also provides the main contents of the thesis as well as the significance of the study. The second part introduces functionalist theory of translation. Academic background and social background are briefly reviewed. Furthermore, the main contributions of functionalist theorists Reiss, Vermeer, Manttari and Nord are presented. The third part is about the core theory of functionalist theory, i.e. Vermeer's Skopostheorie. Reiss's text typology is subsumed into the framework of Skopostheorie. The core theory lays the theoretical foundation for the case study. The fourth part discusses the potentials of the application of Functionalism in instructing literary translation. Since the theory's descriptive nature is in accord with the openness of literary texts, it has theoretical advantages in guiding literary translation and its evaluation. The fifth part shows the comparison and evaluation of the two English versions of Biancheng. Under the guidance of functionalist theory, the analysis is threaded by three rules of Skopostheorie. The author discusses the translations from the perspectives of language features and sentence patterns, style and cultural elements. Different translation strategies and methods adopted by translators are revealed and an attempt is made to find out the reasons behind them. The last part makes a conclusion which contains major findings as a result of the work done in the previous chapters, limitations of the thesis and suggestions for the further study.In the thesis the combination of functionalist theory with literary translation tries to give a rational evaluation of the two versions by applying the three basic rules to explain the differences in the translations. The study of literary translation from the perspective of Functionalism can be rather enlightening. Multi-dimensional and dynamic criteria provide translators with guidance on the macro-level and ensure the practical operation of translation strategies on the micro-level. Meanwhile, a probe into the functionalist concepts is offered, helping deepen the understanding of the theory and contributing to the building of translation studies.