A contrastive study on two Chinese versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in light of the skopos theory

Abstract

The translation of children’s literature has captured great attention due to the specific features of this literary type. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer is undoubtedly a classic in children’s literature which has been translated into many languages and spread all over the world. This dissertation has used two Chinese versions of The Adventure of Tom Sawyer as the sample texts and presents an analysis of them from the perspective of the Skopos theory. With such a contrastive study, this dissertation aims to reveal how applicable the Skopos theory is in the translation of children’s literature. Key words: children’s literature; The Adventure of Tom Sawyer; Skopos theory; fidelity；rhetoric effects；idiomatic uses