An Analysis Of Chinese And Russian Versions Of The Kite Runner From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner was published in2003, but still is popular today. This book has been translated into multiple languages. The Chinese version by Li Jihong and Russian version by Sergay Valentinovich Sokolof have been well received in China and Russia.The Skopos theory believes that translation must follow the principle of purpose and that purpose decides the way of translation. The Skopos theory exerts a great influence on literature translation, and many related researches have been conducted. This thesis compares and provides an analysis on the above-mentioned two translations from the perspective of the Skopos theory. This thesis summarizes the reasons for the success and failure in the two versions based on the Skopos theory and explains the influence of the theory on literature translation. Hopefully, this new research will present some thought on literature translation practice.This thesis has five parts:the first part introduces the background and structure of the thesis; the second part reviews related literature, including information about The Kite Runner and Khaled Hosseini, Chinese and Russian versions and their translators, as well as research on The Kite Runner and its translations; the third part examines the Skopos theory and its limitation; the fourth part, which is the core of the thesis, analyzes typical translations selected from both versions; the fifth part concludes the research and summarizes the significance of the Skopos theory to the practice of literature translation.Comparing the above-mentioned two translations, we see that both have, in a way, followed the three principles of the Skopos theory:both translators have correctly translated the content and plots of the original work, and used their subjectivity to recreate. Despite the success, shortcomings are also found in both versions:the Chinese version has omitted some culture-oriented parts and the Russia version has some obvious mistakes in its translation.