Skopostheorie-based Analysis Of The English Translation Of Classical Chinese Drama

The Chinese nation has a long history and glorious culture in which the classicaldrama is a shining pearl both as the treasure of our nation and precious heritage of theworld. As a unique art form, drama can create various characters and reflect thesociety by using the combination of language arts, performance art and music. XiXiang Ji written by Wang Shifu is considered as the most important lyrical drama inthe history of Chinese literature. With gorgeous lyrics and beautiful language, thisimmortal work is full of poetic artistic conception and every stanza can be read as alyrical poet. As for the theme, by telling the love story of Cui Yingying and ZhangSheng as well as the fighting spirit in their pursuit for love, the drama eulogizes theyoung people’s courage against the feudal etiquettes and progressive idea of “lettingall those in love be finally joined in perfect union”, which leaves a great impact on thefollowing literature creation.Drama is a unique literary genre which includes the translation standards offiction, poetry and other literary. It is the characteristics of its integrated arts that makedrama different from the language art of the purely literary works. With greatattainments in Chinese classical literature translation, Xu YuanChong’s version ofRomance of the Western Bower values musical beauty, visual beauty and image beauty,by which it gets affection in readers.By now, many researches have been down on Xi Xiang Ji and its translationversion, but they are not enough. To break the limitation of the existing research, thisthesis makes a systematic analysis on the basis of Skopostheoire and preparatoryresearch. The thesis also testifies the practical translation effect according to theprinciples of Skopostheorie.This thesis includes five parts:Chapter One gives a general introduction to drama and drama translation. Itdescribes the history and development of Chinese and western drama, the elements ofdrama composition, features of drama language as well as researches about dramatranslation.Chapter Two provides the literature review, ranging from researches about Xi Xiang Ji to several English versions of it. Many researches had been carried fromdifferent perspectives and all those offer reference for this thesis.Chapter Three expounds the theoretical framework of Skopostheorie adapted inthis thesis, including the origin and development of it, representative figures, basicconcepts and three rules of this theory. As a representative of German FunctionalistSchool, Skopostheorie holds that all the translation process is guided by certain aimsand translation methods should fulfill translation skopos. Target language culture andaddressees are put in a relative important position.Chapter Four introduces Xi Xiang Ji and Xu Yuanchong’s English version. As agreat translator, Xu poses his own translation theory and it receives appreciation intranslation field. His translation Romance of the Western Bower embodies histranslation theory and tactics.Chapter Five analyzes Romance of the Western Bower from aspects ofSkopostheorie comprehensively and systemtally. From the following concepts: textfunctions, target addressees, translation skopos, translation brief and three rules ofskopostheorie, we discuss the actual translation effect the translator realized by meansof various methods. Besides, it shows the feasibility and applicability ofSkopostheorie in drama translation.