A Skopos Approach To Ren Rongrong’s Translation Of E.B.Hite’s Children’s Literature

Children’s literature is a branch of literature, which has not only the generalcharacter that all kinds of literature have but also its own individuality. Because of thedevelopment of the children’s literature, its translation activity started and has beencarried out on ever since. In recent years, bsed on different translation theories, manyscholars at home and abroad have made considerably detailed study on the translationof the children’s literature and a lot of significant findings have been achieved.However, in terms of the entire translation system, the translation of the children’sliterature is marginalized and has not aroused enough attention. Due to the specificityof the children’s literature, there are still some problems for scholars to explore.Skopos Theory was formed in the late seventies of20thcentury in Germany. Thetheory lays emphasis on readers and readers’ reaction and it also focuses on functionaland cultural factors. The main content of Skopos Theory is: translation strategies aredetermined by the intended purposes of translation, which are constrained by itsreaders and their cultural backgrounds. Children’s literature, as a special branch ofliterature, has special readers—children. Therefore, during translating process,translators should regard children as the first priority and take children’s cognitivefeatures and cultural background into consideration. By employing simple and vividlanguage, translators should do their best as to express spirit of the original work.Therefore, it is feasible to apply Skops Theory to children’s literature translation.Ren Rongrong, who almost devotes his life to children’s literature translation,has translated more than200children’s books since the1940s and has witnessed aswell as participated in the development of Chinese children’s literature. His career as a translator is also a reflection of the history and development of Chinese children’sliterature translation. Years of translation practice renders him to form his owntranslation features and principles; he also becomes an editor with keen insights. Inhis efforts, many outstanding foreign children’s literature works are introduced intoChina.Ren Rongrong’s traslation works are popular among Chinese children, histranslation principles are in some way similar to those of Skopos Theory. In this case,addressing the theoretical foundation and the practical issues in the translation ofchildren’s literature, this thesis tries to illustrate how the skopos rule, the coherencerule and the fidelity rule are applied in Ren Rongrong’s translation of E.B. White’sthree children’s novels. The thesis attempts to prove the feasibility and necessity inthe translation of the children’s literature with Skopos Theory as the guide andhopefully provide useful and valid suggestions for further development of the field.