A Comparative Study On Two English Versions Of Shui Hu Zhuan From The Perspective Of Functionalism

German functionalist theory of translation is influential worldwide. It breaks the limits of traditional equivalence-based theories, and considers translation as a purposeful cross-cultural activity. Therefore, translators are no longer limited by the source text.Functionalist theory of translation has been widely applied into applied text translation with skopos theory as its core theory. This dissertation attempts to apply it into literary translation, analyze the translation skopos of the translators and the factors involved in translation practice through a comparative study on the two English versions of Shui Hu Zhuan translated by Pearl S. Buck and Sidney Shapiro respectively, explain the translation strategies of the translators in aspects such as the translation of text types, title, culture-specificity and functionalism in literary translation, and finally expound the applicability of the theory in literary translation. The author intends to give new interpretation about literary translation from the perspective of functionalism through the discussion of this dissertation.