4.2 Limitations 21

4.3 Recommendations for Future Research 21

References 23

A Comparison Between Su Fuzhong’s Chinese Translation of The Happy Prince and that of Ba Jin

Chapter One  Introduction

1.1 General Description of the Research

  Education for children is of overriding importance because that is where a nation pins its hopes. Fairy tales are among the greatest teachers for kids, but some worthy international ones are not given the attention they deserve. In China, translation of children’s literature is still a marginalized field. Against this backdrop, greater emphasis should be placed in this regard. Following the guideline of the Skopos theory, this research aims to explore the procedures and strategies that help to achieve the three key Skopos rules in the translation of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales.

1.2 Structure of the Paper

This paper is pided into four chapters.

Chapter One provides a general description of the research and the overall structure of the paper.

Chapter Two is the literature review, including three parts: the first part gives a general review of current study on children’s literature translation; the second part establishes the theoretical framework within which the research is conducted, introducing the concept of Skopos theory and the characteristics of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales; the last part identifies this paper’s place in relation to its previous researches.

   Chapter Three is a comparative study of the two Chinese translations--of Su Fuzhong and Ba Jin respectively, and analyzes what procedures and strategies these two versions adopt to achieve the three rules (Skopos, coherence and fidelity) in Wilde’s work. 

Chapter Four is the concluding part, which includes major findings and limitations of the study and gives recommendations for future research. 

 Chapter Two  Literature Review

2.1 A Review of Children’s Literature Translation

'Children need to read the best literature other countries have to offer. We must meet this challenge by respecting and providing the best in translations or they will be cheated out of part of their global heritage' (Ronald Jobe, 2005, as cited in Evelyn Arizpe, 2006, p. 134). Against this background, a general review of current study on children’s literature translation is necessary for further development in this regard.

Theoretical findings on this topic outside China mainly involve polysystem theory, translation as a form of rewriting and reception theory.

 Polysystem theory, established by Itamar Even-Zohar, describes literary systems as hierarchically arranged networks that include everything from “high” forms such as poetry to “low” forms like popular fiction in a given culture (Li, 2014, p. 64). According to Even-Zohar, both children’s literature and translated literature are on the periphery of the systems in question (Li, 2014, p. 65). In light of this theory, Zohar Shavit (1981) brought translators into full play and proposed two principles that should govern translation of children’s literature: a. Adjusting the text in order to make it appropriate and useful to the child, in accordance with what society thinks is "good for the child." b. Adjusting plot, characterization and language to the child's level of comprehension and his reading abilities (p. 172).