Works Cited 13

1。 Introduction 

Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is one of the most famous and influential works in contemporary Chinese literature。 Since the 20th century, many English versions have been appearing。 These versions have exerted a positive influence on culture export and cross-cultural communication, which add brilliant radiance to human civilization。 Two versions-----The True Story of Ah-Q by Yang Xianyi couple and The Real Story of Ah-Q by Julia Lovell are highly praised。 In the context of Western cultures dominating Chinese translation circle, the two versions both provide a chance for Western readers to know more about China。

With different translation purposes and cultural backgrounds, Yang’s version mainly adopts foreignization strategy to promote Chinese culture and literature。 On the other side, Lovell’s version employs domestication strategy to help target readers to understand the source text。 But in translation practice, it is hard to adopt only one strategy and each strategy has its own merits and shortcomings。 Foreignization and domestication do not contradict with each other, but complement with each other。 Therefore, the thesis will analyze the two English versions from Skopostheorie and its three basic principles。

The thesis consists of six parts。 Part one is a general introduction of the thesis。 Part two will briefly introduce the novel Ah Q Zheng Zhuan and the origin and development of Skopostheorie, as well as its applications in China。 Part three will introduce the three basic principles of Skopostheorie——skopos rule, coherence rule and fidelity rule。 Part four will compare the two English versions by the Yang’s couple and Julia Lovell respectively from different translation strategies and styles。 Part five serves as the key part of the thesis where a detailed analysis between two versions from three principles of Skopostheorie and examples will be given。 And part six will summarize the whole study, as well as tell the findings and inspirations of the thesis。

2。 Literature Review

2。1 A brief introduction of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan

Ah Q Zheng Zhuan was written by Lu Xun in 1921 and is one of the most influential works in contemporary Chinese literature。 Ah Q Zheng Zhuan describes the life experience of Ah Q, a typical Chinese peasant without education or a definite job。 In the novel, Ah Q lives in the period of the Revolution of 1911 and is a lowbrow, serving as a coolie in wealthy families。 The residents living in Wei village all know about Ah Q’s spiritual victory and laugh at him for this。 Ah Q hates those highbrows, but every time when Ah Q conflicts with highbrows, he immediately becomes a coward。 At the end of story, Ah Q is sentenced to execution for a crime which is not committed by him。 

By creating the character of Ah Q, Lu Xun expresses his attention for the Revolution of 1911 and reveals the nationalistic weaknesses and numb state of mind of Chinese people in the old time。 Lu Xun uses his writing composition as a weapon to wake up ignorant and backward Chinese people。

2。2 The origin and development of Skopostheorie来自优I尔Y论S文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520~18766

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hans J。 Vermeer, German translation theorist and scholar, first proposed Skopostheorie。 In Vermeer’s view, answers to the questions in translation cannot merely resort to the linguistic theory。 Vermeer considers that any form of translation is a kind of human action which is purposeful or intentional。 

Translation is, in Vermeer’s opinion, not so much a sheer transfer between two languages as a purposeful transfer based on the source language and its cultural features。 Meanwhile, Vermeer considers that the translation action often needs a specific cultural context。 Therefore, translation should take both the purpose and the cultural elements into account。 Vermeer also believes that the aim of translation is to produce a text for a particular purpose and the intended addressee in the certain cultural context。 The addressee refers to the expected receiver of the target language who has their own cultural background。 As a result, translators are expected to assume responsibility to define the role of the source language during the translation process。 In other words, this means that the translators must perform according to translation commission where the skopos is implicitly or explicitly stated。