A Study On The Translation Strategies Adopted In The Two Chinese Versions Of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

This study includes a contrastive study on the translation strategies adopted inZhao Yuanren’s and Wu Juntao’s Chinese versions of Alice’s Adventures inWonderland. Introducing a classic in children’s literature with everlasting popularityinto Chinese literature will be significant to either the readers’ needs or relevantresearches. For this sake, on the basis of their perceptions of this work, the twosignificant translators stress the ideal functions of their own translations in theirprefaces. Between them, Zhao stresses the dependence of the text functions onchildren and the necessity to represent Chinese children the pure fun, beauty andintelligence of language. On the other hand, Wu emphasizes the reception of readersregardless of ages and the need to lead readers toward discoveries in constantrereading. Based on their ideal text functions, the two translators adopt discrepanttranslation strategies in their versions. On the other hand, the actual functions of theirtranslations and to what degrees these strategies help to achieve their goals need to bestudied in detail.The interrelation between translators’ ideal text functions, translation strategiesand actual functions of the target texts naturally draws attention on the Skopos Theorywith obvious emphasis on text functions in translation. As is stated in this theory, thesource and target texts are independent offers of information with different functions.The creation of the target text is directed by the overall translation purpose. On theother hand, the actual functions of the target text can be measured in the range of“relevance” and “coherence”.Based on the above understandings, this study attempts to reflect the possibleemphasis in the translation purposes Zhao and Wu work with through contrastiveanalyses of their translation strategies and the actual functions of their translationsfrom the perspective of Skopos Theory. Three chapters are arranged for this study. Aliterature review in the first chapter presents the understandings of “children’sliterature” with emphasis on its close relation to adults’ expectations of children’s social roles in China. Chapter Two as the theoretical framework involves briefillustrations of Skopos Theory and its enlightenments to literature translation studies.The third chapter, then, includes16case studies on Zhao’s and Wu’s translationstrategies and the actual functions of their translation within the ranges of “relevance”and “coherence” at the aim of reflecting the possible emphasis in the translationpurposes the two translators work with. The contrastive studies show that Zhao’ssuccessful recreations of the pure fun for Chinese children and the closeness of histranslation to children’s reflect Zhao’s emphasis on the dependence of the textfunction on children and their reception. On the other hand, Wu’s maintenance ofreferences and stylistic features of the source text, as well as explanatory footnotesreflect his emphasis on readers’ discoveries. However, caused by these translationstrategies, obstacles to readers’ smooth comprehension impair this emphasis to acertain degree.