On The Translation Of Children's Literature From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

In this thesis, with the guidance of Skopos Theory of German Functionalism, the author attempts to analyze the E-C translation of children's literature with examples taken from the 2 Chinese versions of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer.As an important branch of literature, children's literature plays an important role in the growth of children's psychology and the forming of sense of world and value. In the rapid development of children's literature, little attention is paid to the translation of children's literature. Up till now, there is no such a book as systematically specializing in this aspect.Any translation needs to be directed by an appropriate purpose. Due to the special TT readers- children, the translation of children's literature needs a much clearer purpose, appropriate translation and abundant understanding. Therefore, with Skopos Theory as the theoretical basis, the author would review the history of the translation of children's literature in China, analyze and compare the 2 Chinese versions of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, and try to draw a conclusion of how to translate children's literature with the guidance of Skopos Theory.The thesis would be divided into 5 chapters.In the first chapter, the author would introduce the cognitive features of different age group for children and some systematical information on children's literature:the definition, features, the function and differences from adults'literature.In the second chapter, the author describes an important concept:child-oriented translation and four periods of the development of children's literature translation in China were introduced.In the third chapter, the author introduces the detailed information of Skopos Theory which sees translation as a purposeful activity and pays attention to the function of the texts and the translation. Within full and detailed data about Skopostheorie, the author mainly focuses on some basic concepts for instance: Skopos, coherence rule, fidelity rule, culture and some important concepts for understanding Skopostheorie.Chapter four is the kernel of this thesis. In the first place, the author gives a brief introduction to The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, its author Mark Twain, versions of its Chinese translations and their corresponding authors. And then, with examples from both versions, the author compares and analyzes at the levels of diction, rhetoric devices, cultural element and the others so as to show how Skopostheorie serve the translation of children's literature.The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis. The author tries to put forward the general rules for the translation of children's literature with the guidance of Skopos Theory.This thesis is written to arouse the scholars and translators'attention to the translation of children's literature in both the theory and practice.