A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

According to functionalist translation theory—Skopos Theory, the most important rule for all the translation is the Skopos rule. That is, the translation purpose determines translation strategies and methods. However, translation purpose is also conditioned by many other factors. As a break with traditional equivalence-based translation theory, Skopos Theory not only provides a dynamic multi-perspective on translation practice, but also a new theoretical foundation on translation criticism.Based on Skopos Theory, this thesis attempts to make a comparative study of the two English versions of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan in terms of linguistics and culture. The analysis shows that during the overall translation, the translators with different translation purposes adopt different translation strategies. As a result, they achieve intended effects and their renditions are adequate respectively. Meanwhile, this research also proves that translation criticism can not evaluate the renditions with prescriptive translation criteria exclusively. We should extend its scope to cover more factors, such as translation purpose, initiator, translator, as well as the target readers, so that we can evaluate the merits and demerits of a translated text from a much wider perspective, and give an impartial and rational evaluation on the translations, especially for the same text.