On Lin Shu And Wei Yi's Translation Of Uncle Tom's Cabin: A Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Lin Shu's translation has been a controversial problem in the translation circle. Among all the criticisms, it is commonly admitted that his translation is not faithful. Chronicle ( 《黑奴吁天录》 ) translated by Lin Shu and Wei Yi is of no exception. Being the first Chinese version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was full of additions, deletions and adaptations. This was labeled as "not being faithful" within the framework of traditional translation theories. However, it. was very popular with the Chinese readers and exerted great impact on the Chinese society at that time. The traditional translation theories cannot give a satisfactory explanation to this phenomenon, but Hans J. Vermeer's skopos theory offers a new-perspective to probe into it.The theoretical framework of this research is skopos theory, which considers translation as a purposeful activity. In skopos theory, there are three, very important rules, namely skopos rule, intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence and skopos rule is the top-ranking one. According to skopos theory, "the end justifies the means" (qtd. in Nord, 2001:29), that is, the intended communicative purpose determines the translation strategies the translator adopts. After a brief introduction to Lin Shu, Wei Yi and their joint translation of Uncle Tom's Cabin and a comparison of Uncle Tom's Cabin with Chronicle in light, of skopos theory, the thesis comes to the climax: the analysis of Chronicle in terms of the rules of skopos theory. Through the comparative study on Chronicle and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the thesis finds: in view of the national crisis of the late Qing period, Lin Shu and Wei Yi wanted to translate Uncle Tom's Cabin into Chinese to warn the Chinese people of the befalling danger and to protect the Chinese nation. Guided by this communicative skopos, Lin Shu and Wei Yi adopted various translation strategies such as addition, deletion and alteration to achieve the intendedskopos. Judged from the reception and the impact of Chronicle, it was really a great success. Finally comes the conclusion: Lin Shu and Wei Yi's strategies of the translation of Chronicle were actually manipulated by the intended skopos. Since they have attained the skopos, they are justified.