On Limits Of Translatability From Skopostheorie

The research of the limits of translatability has been one of the hot topics of the translation study. People have different understanding of the limits of translatability due to their different views of the nature of translation activities and their different understanding of the purpose of translation and translation rules. The Skopostheorie offers a new perspective for us to study the limits of translatability, which provides a flexible interpretation mechanism for the research of the limits of translatability and deepens people’s understanding of it. The flexible interpretation mechanism means that different translators’ purposes produce different translation methods and form different degrees of limits of translatability.The research material of this thesis is two English versions of XiXiang Ji. XiXiang Ji is one of the best representive works of Chinese dramas, in which the author uses lots of Chinese historical allusions and beautiful abstract repetitive words. The focus of the translation of XiXiang Ji is the translation of Chinese historical allusions and beautiful abstract repetitive words whose limits of translatability is a hot topic of the translation field.From the perspective of the Skopostheorie, this thesis compares the translation methods to solving the linguistic or cultural barriers in the two English versions, finds that the purposes of publishers, of translators and of target language readers jointly affect the methods taken by translators, and causes the different limits of translatability of the two English verions. Finally, this thesis makes the following conclusion:in the process of translating a text, the limits of translatability is not fixed, which is affected by the purposes of publishers, of translators and of target language readers. The limits of translatability is flexible, which changes with different purposes.With China’s economically rapid development and insistant opening up to the outside world, Chinese culture is more and more welcome to the foreigners; we hope this thesis can provide some useful inspirations for the translation of the Chinese classical works.