On The Translation Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Excellent translation of foreign children literature is as rich spiritual foodin their growth, to stimulate children’s interest in literature, and is an integralpart of their cultural life. There are a variety of translated versions of foreignchildren’s literature nowadays, while many unsatisfactory translated works alsoare among them. There are two main reasons for it. First, the study of children’sliterature translation is not given due attention and recognition; it is still in amarginalized position. So far there is no complete theoretical system devoted toguiding children literature translation, only few articles discussing children’sliterature translation is experience of some translators rather than systematicstudies. Second, children’s literature translation has its own characteristics,while engaged in children’s literature translation are all adults. Although theytry to reach as closely as possible to thought characteristic and cognitive abilityof children during the process of translation, they will be affected by its ownadult cognitive level to some extent. For the above reasons, the author tries tofind a theory which can be used to guide the translation of children’s literature,to solve some problems of children’s literature translation.Skopostheorie transcends traditional equivalence translation concepts,providing a relative complete theory system for the translation of children’sliterature. It is a kind of translation theory from the perspective of purpose oftranslation behavior, which says translation is a purposeful action. This theorysays the whole translation action is determined by its Skopos, that is to say,“Theresult decides the methods”. Skopostheorie requires translators should makeclear translation purpose priority before proceed translation, and the purpose ofthe translation primarily depends on the target readers. It requires translatorsputs target reader first in the process of translation. For translation of children’sliterature, the main target readers are children. Due to children’s cognitive,knowledge level and acceptability has its special and own characteristics, wemust first understand cognitive ability and characteristics of the target reader-Chinese children. Therefore, the author elaborates children, children’scognitive features, their characteristics from a psychological point of view inchapter Two. Only understand children’s cognitive features, their owncharacteristics can the translator really put the target reader first, then befaithful reproduction of the original taste, conform to the express habits ofchildren rather than just blindly faithful to the original. Only in this way can thetranslators make the excellent translation, and realize the essence of purpose forchildren literature translation. In the fourth chapter, The author take Alice’sAdventures in Wonderland as an example under the guidance of Skopostheorie,mainly take Zhao Yuanren’s translated version as example, comparatively studyhis translation and Jia Wenhao, Jia Wenyuan’s versions from three rules ofSkopostheorie, the Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule. It confirmsSkopostheorie play a significant role in guiding the translation of children’sliterature, and found some universal rules in the translation of children’sliterature, to solve some problems existing in children’s literature translation.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, this paper consists of fourchapters.The first chapter discusses research object of the thesis, significance of thestudy, research methodology and framework of this thesis.Chapter two describes literature review, a brief presentation history ofchildren literature translation, the relevant definition, the features of CL, thestatus and function of CL.Chapter three provides a review of Skopostheorie, clarify three main rules,namely Skopos rule, coherence rule, and fidelity rule and explores itsinspiration to translation．Chapter four is the core of this paper, the author pays attention to linkingtheory with practice, take Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an exampleunder the guidance of Skopostheorie, comparatively analyze the Chineseversion of Zhao Yuanren and Jia Wenhao, Jia Wenyuan from the major rules ofSkopostheorie. The thesis finds out some appropriate strategies and methods for children’s literature translation; the last part serves as a conclusion for thewhole paper, some inspirations for translators in CL translation as well as thedeficiency for present study.