A Study On Ying Ruocheng's Translation Of Teahouse From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

With the advancement of globalization, drama as an elegant art is playing an increasingly important role in the history of cultural exchange and transmission. Distinguished from other literature forms, it is favored as an efficient way in cultural transmission with its direct visual impact and vividness. However, drama translation is rarely touched upon and still remains the most problematic area among translation studies (Bassnett, S. 2001:90). Due to its dual nature, many scholars are trapped in the labyrinth of translating for the page or the stage for a long time. With translation Skopos as its topmost rule: that is the translators are free to choose corresponding translation strategies to a certain extent as long as it can serve its translation Skopos, Skopostheorie opens up a brand new perspective to drama translation.This thesis is intended to present a study on Ying Ruocheng's translation of Teahouse. In accordance with the author's study, Ying Ruocheng's translation is stage-oriented and he puts special emphasis on the brevity and performability of dramatic language. Thus simple sentences are used in large quantities in his translation. When dealing with the cultural terms, the main translation strategy he adopted is domestication translation strategy. Within the framework of Skopostheorie, translation strategies employed are determined by the Skopos of the overall translational action which are affected by many external factors such as the initiator, the translator, the target addressees, etc. Similarly in Ying's translation process, the initiator's translation brief, the translator's translation motivation and orientation, and the cognitive capacity of the target addressees all exert great influence on his final translation decision. The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One introduces the research background, the research motivation and research objectives, the research questions and the thesis structure.Chapter Two explains drama translation and its current research; Skopostheorie and present studies on Teahouse are also given in detail.Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the main body of the thesis. Chapter Three probes into how the external factors such as the initiator's translation brief, the translator's translation motivation and orientation and the cognitive capacity of target addressees exert influence on the translator's translation decision. Chapter Four is a detailed analysis of Ying's translation in light of Skopostheorie in which a further illustration about what translation strategy Ying Ruocheng has adopted under the constraints of the three external factors is presented.Chapter Five is the conclusion in which major findings, limitations and suggestions for future research are also given.