A Study Of The Translation Of The Scarlet Letter From The Perspective Of The Skopos Theory

The Scarlet Letter is the masterpiece of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is known for its abundant employment of symbolism and psychological description and has attracted the attention of many readers and scholars since its publication. The Scarlet Letter was introduced into China in the early 1930 s. Its Chinese versions came out like mushrooms after rain, especially after the Opening and Reform. Among these Chinese versions, those translated by Han Shiheng and Yao Naiqiang are the most popular and accepted ones. The version selected in this thesis is the one of Yao Naiqiang. This version has reproduced Hawthorne’s excellent artistic expressive force and subtle feelings in the form of accurate expression and aesthetic language,thus providing Chinese readers with a complete and felicitous classic literary work.The Skopos theory of the German Functionalist is proposed by Hans Vermeer in the 1970 s. According to this theory, the translation activity and translation methods are determined by the translation Skopos. The Skopos theory has put forward three rules of the translation activity: the Skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule. The Skopos rule is the first and foremost rule of all translation activities and holds the belief that translation should take effect according to the expected way of the expected target readers, considering target language context and culture. Besides, the purpose of translation determines the whole translation process. The coherence rule means that translation is supposed to be acceptable and readable for the target readers, and should make sense in the target language context. The fidelity rule means that there should have inter-consistence between the original text and translated text. However, the form and degree of fidelity depends on the Skopos of the translation and the target readers’ ability of understanding.As the core of the functionalist approach, the Skopos theory’s feasibility in literary translation has caused continuous debates since its emergency. This thesis, guided by the Skopos theory, has studied a lot of translation examples from different perspectives and explored the translation strategies employed by the translator, being aimed to prove its feasibility in literary translation. Firstly, the author elaborates Yao Naiqiang’s translation purposes. Then, according to the writing styles of the original text, the author analyses how the three rules are reflected in Yao Naiqiang’s version. The author believes that the ultimate goal of Yao’s translation is to provide the Chinese readers with a complete version, which corresponds to Chinese culture and thinking patterns. Therefore, Yao’s translation attaches great importance to the target readers and has made some adjustments to the original text. What is more, it has paid more attention to the acceptance and readability of the translation. In addition, the translator is supposed to preserve as much cultural information as possible, in order to transmit information and benefit the target readers. Finally, based on the Skopos rule, the author has also summarized the translation strategies for better translation quality and appreciation.Based on the Skopos theory, in this thesis, the author has studied and analyzes Yao’s version in detail. This has proved the Skopos theory’s feasibility in literary translation and the acceptance of Yao’s version. Conclusions have been drawn to complement the previous study and add inspiration to the following research.