A Study Of Two Chinese Versions Of Steve Jobs From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Steve Jobs is the only authorized biography of Steve Jobs. The biography was written at the request of Jobs who was best known as the co-founder of Apple Inc by acclaimed biographer Walter Isaacson, the original English version was published by Simon&Schuster in the United States. Simplified Chinese was published by China CITIC Press and traditional Chinese (Taiwan version) was released by Commonwealth Publishing Co., Ltd.Among various and great translation theories, Skopos Theory appeared in1970s is unique. As an innovative idea ai the traditional idea of equivalence, this theory redefines translation, which makes the translators select the appropriate translation strategies and methods according to their intended purposes. According to Skopos Theory, a translation will be restricted by the specific social, historical and cultural backgrounds, and different intended aims of different translations will inevitably bring different attention to the same source text. Therefore, in translation criticism, by paying attention to the purpose of the translation and the intended receivers, it is possible to make a more comprehensive and reasonable evaluation of translations.This thesis attempts to make an analytical contrast between the two Chinese versions of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs from the perspective of Skopos Theory. The first version was translated by Guan Yanqi and other three translators in Mainland China. While the other one is translated by Liao Yuejuan and other two translators in Taiwan. We should take their social, historical and cultural background, the intended readers and the intended purposes of the translation into consideration while evaluating the two Chinese versions. Thus the author can confer the practical and instructive significance in translation criticism.This thesis will be grouped into five parts as follows:The first part is introduction, to simply present the background, aim and significance of research.The second part is literature review, which introduces previous researches on Skopos Theory in the west and China and studies on Walter Isaacson and Steve Jobs, two Chinese versions of Steve Jobs, and the background of the two versions and translators respectively. The third part is theoretical basis, to briefly discuss the development and basic rules of Skopos Theory, and its application in translation criticism and biography translation.The forth part is to analyze the Chinese versions of Steve Jobs from the perspective of Skopos Theory.The fifth part is conclusion, the review and summary of the whole thesis.