On Literary Book Title Translation-from The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Book title is the soul of the whole book, and book title translation surely plays an essential part in the translation of the whole writing and thus requires special consideration. From the literary book title translation cases, we may find that some of the successfully rendered ones are actually not faithful to the original ones and can not be explained by the traditional translation theories. The existing translation theories are rarely applicable to the translation of book title. This thesis discusses the translation of book titles. Different from other previous articles which have based their study of book title translation on the equivalence theory, this thesis provides Skopostheorie, a new guiding theory to the study of book title translation. From the purpose point of view, namely the skopostheorie, this thesis discusses its application in book title translation practice and explores the influence of the cultural and political elements and suggests the translating principles and translation methods. Besides, the responsibility of the translator is emphasized in translating book titles.The thesis is divided into six parts. The first part is the general introduction about the problems that the translators may encounter when translating the book titles and the scholars' contribution in solving this problem; the second part is the general introduction of book titles and skopos theory and the three rules of it and the significance of applying the theory to the translation of book titles. The third part discusses name position, and part four expounds the culture and social factors' influence upon the translation of book titles, the fifth part is about translator's intention and proposes some principles for book title translation. The last part is the discussion and conclusion about the applicability of the skopos theory to the translation of book titles.The methodology applied in this research is case study. From the case study of book title translation, this thesis draws the conclusion that the translator should translate the book titles according to the skopos.