An Analysis Of The Translation Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Children’s literature, as a branch of literature, has its own characteristics and readers. In recent years, great achievements have been scored after the all-round studies and discussions in this area. However, at present the study on the translation of children’s literature occupies a marginalized position.Skopos theory, which was put forward by Hans J. Vermeer, has provided a new approach for children’s translation. The theory focuses above all on the purpose of the translation. It includes three main rules: the skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. The choice of translation strategies is decided by the three main rules.Stuart Little, as one of the trilogy written by E·B·White, has enjoyed great popularity all over the world. This paper takes the famous translator Ren Rongrong’s translation as an example to make a case study. According to Skopos theory, every translation is directed at an intended audience. As Stuart Little is intended for children, the translator should take children’s characteristics into consideration. The colloquial words, refrain words, mimetic words and simple sentences are adopted in Ren Rongrong’s translation. Moreover, according to the educational skopos of children’s literature, Ren also chooses many four-character phrases.This paper consists of four parts. Part one is a brief introduction which includes the background, the significance and the thesis of the study. Part two is the literature review. In this part, the author describes the characteristics of children’s translation and introduces the development of Skopos theory. In part three, the preferable translation examples of Stuart Little are picked out and the adopted translation strategies are analyzed based on the three rules of Skopos theory. Last part is the conclusion. The author hopes this paper can help readers gain a deeper understanding of children’s translation.