The Embodiment Of Skopos Theory In Julia Lovell’s Translation Of The Real Story Of Ah-Q

Translating is always taken as a human action and it is a purposeful activity as well.Therefore, the main principle deciding the translation procedure is the aim of the entiretranslation action.As we all know, Skopos theory subordinates functionalist translation theory and it insiststhat translation is a purposeful activity. Meanwhile, the first and most vital rule that alltranslations should adhere to is the Skopos rule, which means the translation strategies andmethods are decided by the translation purpose. Therefore, whether it is adequate to achieve thepre-set aim of translation has already become one of the important standards to evaluatetranslations.According to the three basic rules of Skopos theory, namely, skopos rule, fidelity rule andcoherence rule, the thesis is going to implement an analysis on the latest English version of TheReal Story of Ah-Q by Julia Lovell. Through analysis, the author concludes that Lovell’s primetranslation purpose is to introduce Lu Xun’s story and his thought to the target readers who arenot familiar with Chinese culture. For this reason, she tends to employ the strategy ofdomestication in order to make her version natural and fluent. In other words, Lovell’stranslation is fairly appropriate, because her translation not only successfully presents her ideasabout the original work, but also closely connects with the original text at the same time.The entire thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is mainly the introductory part,containing research background, significance of the research as well as research methods andthesis structure. Then, the author presents a systematic introduction to the Skopos Theoryincluding its definition, its development, three basic rules and the significance of the theory in the second chapter. As for the third chapter, the author first makes an introduction to Lu Xun andhis Ah Q Zheng Zhuan and then turns to provide the information about the latest English versionof The Real Story of Ah-Q by Julia Lovell. Chapter Four is always regarded as the mostsignificant section due to the detailed and intensive analysis of the translation strategies in JuliaLovell’s version according to Skopos Theory. The last chapter is the conclusion which containsmajor findings, limitations of this research as well as the implications for the further research.The research verifies that the criticism of translation should not be merely based onnormative standard of translation in appraising its strong points, but the range of criticism shouldbe expanded to contain the purpose of translation, translators and translation recipients. Only inthis way, can the target readers evaluate the translation from a more objective perspective andensure a reasonable evaluation of the translated text.