A Translation Project Report On Chapter Six Of Discovering The Western Past: A Look At The Evidence(Volume Ⅱ: Since 1650)

This is a translation project report on “Two Programs for Social and Political Change: Liberalism and Socialism”, which was an original chapter of “Discovering the Western Past: A Look at the Evidence(Volume II: Since 1650)” written by Merry E. Wiesner(-Hanks), Julius Ruff and William Bruce Wheeler. This chapter presents some general background information of liberalism and socialism in the 19 th century at first, then introduces some specific information of Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx as representatives of liberalism and socialism and chooses their writings as the sources to study so as to help students master the basic concepts of liberalism and socialism and their impact on later development of society. The source text consists of five parts: The Problem, Sources and Method, The Evidence, Questions to Consider and Epilogue. This structure promotes students’ critical thinking and analytical skills. The translator hopes that Chinese students can master the new way to learn history and improve their learning ability by reading the translated text.This report is guided by Skopos theory which is put forward by Vermeer, a German translation theorist. There are three rules involed in Skopos theory, that is, the Skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. In Skopos theory, the Skopos rule is the first principle which is the most important principle among three rules, because the Skopos determines the whole translation procedure. The coherence rule indicates that the translated text should be acceptable by the recipients so as to realize intratextual coherence. The fidelity rule specifies that the target text should be maximally faithful to the source text so as to realize intertextual coherence. The source text is a history textbook or is classified into the informative text, whose main function is to provide information. So under the guidance of Skopos theory and with a consideration of the characteristics of the source text and reading habits of Chinese students, the translator adopts amplification, omission, conversion, division, combination, anastrophe and integrated approach to solve the problems arising in the translation project. The translator tries her best to faithfully convey the meaning of the source text and make the translated text conform to proper Chinese expressions, so as to help Chinese students get information, acquire more knowledge and improve their learning ability.The report consists of five parts. The translation task is described in the first part, including the introduction to the translation task, the purpose and significance of the translation task and the report structure; the second part introduces the background of the source text, which involves the authors, the original book and the source text; the third part is the translation process, introducing the preparations, the problems and difficulties in translation as well as the translation theory adopted in this translation project; the fourth part is the case studies, mainly discussing the methods adopted in translating; the last part summarizes the unsolved problems and the translation experience.