A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of The Importance Of Being Earnest From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

The dual nature of drama as literary art and performing art at once, and the duality of play, namely, readability and performability make drama translation quite different from other forms of literary translation with the dual purpose of stage performance and literary reading, and therefore increase the difficulty in drama translation. In the light of present situation, drama translation is still deficient in systematic and theoretical guidance, and the purpose of translation in the process of drama translation remains to be overlooked.In this thesis, skopos theory of German Functionalist School is applied to a comparative study of three Chinese versions of The Importance of Being Earnest, the representative and well-known play by Oscar Wilde as a great dramatist. The formation and development, theoretical framework, and contributions and limitations of skopos theory are reviewed in the first chapter. Drama, and the history, principles and evaluation of drama translation are overviewed in the second chapter. A comprehensive Introduction to The Importance of Being Earnest is made, and a detailed analysis and comparative study of the three Chinese versions from the perspective of skopos theory in many aspects, such as the comparison of the skopos, translation strategies, translation methods and so on are carried out, and a proposal concerning the problem emerging in the comparative study and deserving further study is put forward in the third chapter.Through the comparative study of the Chinese versions by the three translators from the Mainland of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong respectively under the guidance of skopos theory, this thesis aims to illustrate the decisive influence of the purpose of translation on the three Chinese versions in the process of translation, discuss the applicability of skopos theory to drama translation, and justify that skopos theory is applicable to such kind of literary translation as drama translation and therefore conducive to the translation studies and criticism of drama translation.