On Ren Rongrong’s Metaphor Translation Strategies Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

In this thesis, we will study the translation strategies of Ren Rongrong in Charlotte’s Web on metaphor in the source text by the guidance of Skopos theory, combined with the characteristics of children’s literature.Skopos theory is founded in the late1970’s of the German functional translation theory which is based on the development of Skopos theory. It emphasizes the expected purpose, and pays attention to the reader’s response, according to which to choose the best translation strategies. The rules of Skopos theory are the "objective principle", the "coherence rule" and "loyalty principle", which has played a guiding role for the children’s literature in the metaphor translation method. According to the target text reader’s expectations, prior knowledge and the environment to the expectation, the translator should adopt different strategies in order to achieve the purpose of translating. Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life. It uses one thing to understand another thing. It is not only a rhetorical, but also a cognitive mode of existence of human thinking as well. As a cognitive model, and a mutual need as among various disciplines, metaphor is perceived and used in various subjects. In literary works, especially in children’s literature, it can be seen everywhere.As a branch of literature, children’s literature has the common characteristics of literature and its particularity. As a special reader group, Children are different from the adult in reading and thinking. So the children should be considered carefully in the process of translating, combined with the children’s reading characteristics, knowledge and background information. In that way the translator can convey the intention of the author and translate the metaphor in the source text precisely and faithfully in a vivid and understandable language. Therefore, the translation strategies of metaphor under the guidance of Skopos theory should be suitable for children readers. Ren Rongrong as a writer and translator of children’s literature, gradually forms his own translation principles after many years of children’s literature translation experience. The most obvious principle is "faithfulness". This point also happens to hold the same view of the rule of Skopos theory. Ren Rongrong’s translation style emphasizes the colloquialism, which is in line with the most important principle--"objective principles" of Skopos theory. In his efforts, Chinese children readers understand lots of foreign children’s literary works in the original. Charlotte s Web is one of them.The author of the thesis adopts exemplification method to analyze the metaphors in the source text to make a research on Ren Rongrong’s metaphor translation strategies in Charlotte’s Web from the angle of semantics and rhetoric according to the guiding principles of Skopos theory. The aim of study is to provide reference to the metaphor translation in children’s literature, and make a little contribution to the translation of children’s literature.