On Translation Of Chapter Titles In Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of The Skopos Theory

With the abundant linguistic and cultural connotation, Hong Lou Meng is regarded as “the encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society”. As a representative masterpiece of Chinese classical chapter novels, what impresses readers is the chapter title in Hong Lou Meng that is created with unique aesthetic value and special artistic effect. The chapter title is compared to the eye of a chapter as it concludes the main contents of this chapter. In chapter titles, the skeleton of the whole chapter can be vividly and tersely summarized, which impresses readers deeply. Since it came into being, Hong Lou Meng has attracted numerous readers and scholars both at home and abroad. Therefore, the masterpiece has been translated many times into foreign languages. Among these translated versions, there are two excellent English complete versions, which have been widely appreciated and highly prized. They are respectively A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and The Story of the Stone translated by David Hawkes and John Minford. What's more, the translations of chapter titles in the two English versions are translated in different styles, which deserves our detailed study.This thesis attempts to make a comparative study on the translation of chapter titles in Hong Lou Meng in light of the Skopos Theory. Five aspects of chapter titles in the original text are selected, which are names of characters and places, euphemisms, emotional color words, allusions and repetition. The purpose of the comparison is to explore how the translation purpose influences translators' choices of strategies in translation. Through the comparative analysis, this thesis finds that the Yangs and Hawkes prefer to adopt different strategies under the guidance of different skopos. In order to transmit the original flavor of Chinese culture to foreign readers and facilitate the cultural communication between the East and West, the Yangs mainly employ documentary translation. They emphasize more on the inter-textual coherence, which is source text-oriented. However, Hawkes takes the cultural background and social environment of the western readers into careful consideration and leans to adopt instrumental translation. He pays more attention to the intra-textual coherence, which is reader-oriented. Although the two versions show different preferences, the expected functions of the two versions are consistent with the skopos they have set to reach.In conclusion, being more loyal to the source text, the Yangs do a better job in making the readers know the profound and extensive Chinese culture by their simple and terse translation. While considering more about the target readers, Hawkes makes the translation more interesting and easier to follow by his vivid and lively language. Just as the scholar Zhou Jueliang evaluates them, “reaching their different goals by different ways”. Therefore, the author arrives at a conclusion that the choice of strategy is appropriate and the translation is adequate when its skopos is achieved. Both of the two versions achieve their own skopos well and are regarded as successful profiles from different points of view.