On The Applicability Of Skopostheoire In Luearry Translation

In1970s, Vermeer, one of the representatives of functionalism, put forward theSkoposthorie, which believes that the translation methods and strategies adoptedduring the whole process of translation are determined by the Skopos of translation.The Skopostheorie is the core concept of functionalist translation theory, whichconsists of three major principles or rules—Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelityrule, among them the Skopos rule is the most important one and the other two rulesare subordinate rules. The Skopostheorie has liberated the translation studies fromthe constraint of the traditional concept of equivalence and widened the horizon oftranslation. And the success of translation depends on the achievement of its intendedpurpose. In a large sense, it has great significance in guiding the translation practicein terms of the translation evaluation. However, many scholars believe that theSkopostheorie is not suitable for literary translation. So the thesis intends to make atentative study on the applicability of Skopostheorie in the literary translationthrough a case study of the English translation of Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji （《许三观卖血记》）with the functional translation theory as the theoretical framework.From the perspective of the Skopostheorie, the Skopos of the translation willbe analyzed at first, and then the way the translator deals with the translationdifficulties due to the cultural difference between China and the west, what kinds oftranslation methods (such as foreignization, transliteration, addition, omission andsubstitution) have been adopted by the translator and why, and their consistency withthe Skopos of the translation will be mainly analyzed by giving a large number oftranslation examples. Further, according to the difference between Chinese andEnglish, the coherence and fluency of the translation and its conformity with thereading habit and language practice of target reader will be examined in order toverify the achievement of the coherence rule in the target text. In addition, the thesiswill discuss the faithfulness of the translation to the original within the framework of functionalist translation theory. According to the analysis of the narration style andlanguage features of the original, the reproduction or retainment of the narration styleand language features of the original in the translation will be examined so as toprove the applicability of the coherence rule in the translation. Lastly, this thesismakes a comprehensive analysis of the relationship among the initiator, the originalauthor and the translator involved in the translation of Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji inorder to examine the achievement of the loyalty principle.Through the above analysis, here comes the conclusion that the translator ofXu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji，Andrew Jones， adopted correct translation methods underthe guidance of Skoposthoerie，his translation does not only faithfully convey thenarration style and language features of the original, but more importantly, it alsotransmits Chinese culture to the target readers, the Skopos of the translation isachieved. Further, this thesis in return proves that the Skoposthoerie has significancein guiding literary translation.