A Contrastive Study On The Translation Strategies In Two Chinese Versions Of The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Translation is an intercultural communication with a specific purpose. Thepurpose of the translation activity is the key to dominate the whole translation process,which is the very core of the Skopos theory. As a breakthrough in the translation field,the Skopos theory proposed by Vermeer offers a new perspective in translationpractice and gives the translators a way out from the dilemma of literal translation andfree translation. In this thesis, the author tries to make a contrastive study on the twodifferent Chinese translations of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by the famousAmerican writer Mark Twain from the perspective of the Skopos theory, aiming toprove that the translation strategies adopted in the two Chinese versions aredetermined by the different translation Skopos. In terms of the Skopos theory, thetranslation Skopos is determined by the social and cultural background, and the targetaddressees. Undoubtedly, different translation purposes will lead to different focusesthat the translated texts hold. Therefore, the translation purposes and its determiningfactors listed above shall all be taken into consideration when making the contrastivestudy.First of all, the thesis gives an introduction to the research background, researchmethod, significance of the research, and thesis structure. Then the next part is aliterature review of the Skopos theory. In the beginning, it reviews the background ofthe Skopos theory from two aspects, including the limitations of the translation theoryat that time and the external demands. Then the three basic rules, Skopos, coherenceand fidelity, are introduced. Next come the functions of the Skopos theory on thetranslator, translating process and target readers. Then follows an introduction to thegreat master Mark Twain and his classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.In the next part, an introduction to the two Chinese versions of this novel by ZhangWanli and Cheng Shi is given in the thesis, including the social background andtranslation purpose. The following part is the main body of the thesis in which itmakes a contrastive study on the translation strategies adopted in the two Chinese versions from two levels, namely, the linguistic level and the cultural level. For thelinguistic level, there are two aspects involved as follows, the lexical angle and thesyntactic angle; for the cultural level, the contrastive analysis is done from threeaspects, including translating idioms, translating culture-loaded words, andtransferring the content with rhetorical device. Lastly, the author draws a conclusionfrom the contrastive study that the Skopos theory can effectively direct the translators’choice in the translation strategies.