A Study On The Translation Of Scholarly Monograph From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

This is a report for the translation project of Gorbachev's Factor, a scholarly monograph in Russian and Eastern European Studies. The author of the thesis chooses this academic work as the study subject with the aim of exploring the instructive effect of Skopos theory in the translation of above-mentioned academic text.Different from common reading materials, the scholarly monograph possesses high-level academic and research values. When translating such works, the translator should take into account both the academic value of the original text and the reading experience of the target readers. However, if these two main concerns are incompatible with each other, the translator needs a certain standard to make choices upon. The Skopos theory of German Functionalism can offer the very standard to solve this problem. The Skopos theory integrates translation into the area of behavior study, and maintains that any behavior, translation included, has its purpose. Therefore, the choice of translating strategy hinges closely on its translation purpose. Vermeer, the founder of the Skopos theory, brings up three basic rules related to Skopos theory. Namely, Skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule. They stipulate that the Skopos rule is the top priority when it comes to translation, and then the concern goes to the coherence and fidelity one after another.The purpose of this translation practice is to introduce this academic monograph and offer referential materials for specialists in this area. Guided by this purpose, the thesis conducts a detailed case study from three different levels, namely, the sentence translation, word choice and the strategy of using special punctuations, and draws the conclusion that the Skopos theory can act as a useful guidance in the translation of scholarly monograph. With the Skopo as the top concern, the translator will bare the loyalty to the original text in mind all the time, and follow its deductive method and expressive way to pass on the academic value and characteristics.