The Skopos Theory And Drama Translation

By turning the research focus to the target language, the skopos theory dethrones the original text, frees the translators from the shackle of absolute loyalty to the source text and allows them more freedom in choosing translating strategies. Not only has this theory made great contribution to translation teaching, translator training and the translation of business and political texts, but it is also instructive in literary translation, especially the translation of drama, which is a special literary genre.As one of Britain's, or even the world's most established playwrights, Oscar Wilde is remembered for his unparalleled talent, witty writing style and easy humor. His plays are still on the stage even today. Among these plays, the comedies are especially highly thought of; of the comedies in turn, The Importance of Being Ernest wins the most applause, and is best representative of Wilde's talents and the height he achieved in comedy writing. On the other hand, it brings translators the trickiest of problems. Therefore, this thesis takes as topic the comparative analysis of three Chinese translations of this very play.Contribution of this thesis lies in the combination of the basic notions of the skopos theory and drama translation with the comparative analysis of the three Chinese versions of the comedy. In the thesis, the author first briefs on the gist of the skopos theory, talks about the dilemma of drama translation and the skopos theory's instructive meaning for drama translation. Then the author tells the life story of Oscar Wilde, elaborates on the introduction and acceptance of his works in China and the status quo of study on Oscar Wilde in China, and points out a prominent problem in research on Chinese translations of Wilde's works, which is that subjective value judgment seems to prevail. Afterwards, the author gives a detailed description of these three translations, from perspectives such as the three translators'identity, background, literary accomplishment and translation strategies, followed by a comprehensive comparison of the three translations, in the attempt of getting a clearer idea of the differences in them. Lastly, the author comments on the three translations, gives a little bit of her personal thinking and points out that while conducting researches on translation, we should think more independently, instead of repeating whatever other people say.