On Children’s Literature Translation From The Perspective Of Function-plus-loyalty

Children are the future of a nation and are placed in an important position in society. Childhood is quite a critical period, during which knowledge is acquired and values are shaped. In the past decades, great efforts have been made to cultivate the next generation. Many foreign children’s literature has been introduced to Chinese readers in the past few years, which greatly enriched children’s life and increased their knowledge. However, we must admit that a great number of the Chinese translated versions flooding in the book markets are of low quality. Thus, how to provide them with qualified learning and reading materials becomes a prominent and urgent issue for all the educators.Function-plus-loyalty model is a comparatively new theory for children’s literature translation study. Only a few translators apply this theory to children’s literature translation. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, one of the America’s most beloved fairytales, has appeared in numerous editions in different languages since its publication in1900. Even today, the novel continues to enjoy popularity and commercial success. Through the comparative analysis of the two Chinese versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on the basis of the skopos rule, coherence rule, fidelity rule and loyalty principle, the thesis will explore whether the translated versions conform to Nord’s function-plus-loyalty model. According to the detailed analysis, it appears that although the two versions are both successful, compared with Chen’s translation, Ma’s translation conforms more to the function-plus-loyalty model and possesses more features of children’s literature.There are five parts in this thesis. The introduction part briefly introduces the research background, research purpose, research questions and research significance.The first chapter is literature review. The author makes a brief review of children’s literature and previous studies on translation of children’s literature. Based on the previous studies, the weaknesses of previous research are pointed out and the significance of the present research is emphasized. The second chapter is theoretical framework. In this chapter, German Functionalist Approaches are briefly introduced first. After that, Nord’s function-plus-loyalty mode as the theoretical framework of the thesis is discussed in detail from the perspective of the three function-related rules and loyalty principle.Chapter three is the case study of the two Chinese versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In this chapter, a comparative analysis of the two versions is conducted specifically from functional-related rules and loyalty principle respectively.The last part of the thesis is conclusion. Three significant findings are summarized based on the previous analysis, and the research limitations are pointed out. Meanwhile, suggestions of the study are also illustrated at the end of the thesis, hoping that this study can provide references for the future study in children’s literature translation.