A Study On Religious Content Translation In Afro-American Literature From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory-A Case Study On Beloved

Religion enjoys a close relationship with literature and it plays an even more important role in Afro-American literature works. Religion not only influences the themes of the literary works, but also constitutes part of the content in the Afro-American literary works. However, the translation of religious content in literary works is marginalized, and it hasn’t been given enough attention.Beloved by Toni Morrison, a classical work in Afro-American literature, contains strong religious flavor. In this novel, Morrison wonderfully intertwines Christian beliefs and beliefs especially specific to West and Central African religions together. The religious elements in the novel play a vital role. However, the research on the translation of the religious content in Morrison’s works has not caught enough attention. The thesis will analyze and compare Pan Yue and Lei Ge’s and Wang Youxuan’s two Chinese versions of Beloved and explore how they translate the religious content from the perspective of Skopostheorie.As the theoretical basis of the thesis, the Skopos Theory is one of the most important theories in the German functionalist theory of translation. It attaches incomparable importance to the target readers and their cultural background. According to the Skopos Theory, translation is a culture-transcending process rather than the linguistic-based code-switching activity. As religion is a special form of culture, the translation of it will be better guided from the perspective of Skopostheorie.This thesis attempts to enrich, to some extent, the field of studying translation of religious content in Beloved. Through exploring the religious elements taking root in both Christianity and traditional African religion, analyzing and comparing two Chinese translation versions of Beloved, the author tries to explore how they abide by or violate the three rules of Skopos Theory and what translation methods are used in translating religious content. The comparison of the two versions will hopefully provide some suggestions and inspirations for the future translation in this field.