A Report On C-E Translation Practice Of Fifteen Lectures On Famous Chinese Modern And Contemporary Literary Works(Excerpts)

The translation project is a Chinese-English translation practice.The source text chosen is the second chapter of Chen Sihe’s Fifteen Lectures on Famous Modern and Contemporary Literary Works.In the source text(ST),which is sorted as informative text,Chen critiques Lu Xun’s The Diary of a Madman through literary,social,and cultural perspectives.In this translation project,the guiding theory is skopos theory.This translation report discusses the theoretical application of skopos theory in accordance with its three rules: the skopos rule,the coherence rule,and the fidelity rule.Then,the report investigates the influence of cultural elements on translation practice.The source text contains many culturally exclusive terms that require thorough investigation and analysis in translation.This translation report is mainly based on the examination of the selected cases in the translation practice.This translation project aims to retain important academic views in the field of Chinese literary studies in translation.Skopos theory,it seems,can meet the needs for the transference of academic thoughts in translation when it comes to re-creating and retaining the logical structures and core thoughts in the target text context.At the same time,by the means of foot-noting and cultural compensation in the translation practice guided by skopos theory,the author is better equipped to explore the possibility of narrowing the linguistic and cultural gaps between the ST and TT contexts.Rich in Chinese cultural elements,the ST is academic in nature and requires the author to take into account how culture influences translation.The author reckons that,with the help of skopos theory,the logical structures and academic thoughts in the ST can be better retained during translation and more in line with target text’s sociocultural context.Additionally,with the help of footnoting and other translation tactics,the loss of cultural elements during translation could be,to some degree,compensated.The report is subdivided into five parts.The first part introduces the background and significance of this translation project from the aspects of reasons to choose the ST and the analysis of the ST.The second part is mainly about the process of the entire translation practice as the author reviews the practice according to the three chronological phases: pre-translation,in-translation,and after-translation.The third part analyzes the theoretical applicability of skopos theory for the translation of informative texts in consideration of ST’s linguistic features.In the fourth part of the report,the author analyzes the selected cases from the theoretical application perspective and cultural perspective to investigate linguistic conversions and cultural transference in the application of skopos theory in translation.In the fifth part of the report,the author reflects on the entire translation practice,and reckons that skopos theory is suitable for the translation practices of informative texts rich in cultural elements.