3.2.5 Discovery in children's literature 5

4. Skopos Theory Applied to the Translation of Children’s Literature 6

4.1 Skopos theory applied to literary translation 6

4.2 Skopos theory applied to the translation of children’s literature 7

4.2.1 A case text---Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 7

4.2.2 The comparative analysis of the two chinese versions of Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows

8

5. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction 

     There is no doubt that the future of a nation is the future of its offspring. This axiom brings to light the vital significant of children’s education. Children’s literature, domestic and foreign, proves to be one of the most important means for children’s education. It helps our children form a sound and healthy attitude towards the world, life, people and themselves, enhance their moral awareness, shape their insights, and develop their profound potential for imagination and aesthetical appreciation. However, children’s literature has long been placed on a marginal position both at home and abroad. The same is true of the translation of children’s literature. A comprehensive review of China’s literary history discloses the fact that there were no genuine books for children in ancient China. At that time, children were entertained and educated simply by folk ballads, myths, tales and legends about some legendary heroes and natural phenomena , which were passed on orally. In fact, it was not until the May Fourth Movement that children’s literature became to receive due attention in China. During this movement, many Chinese men of writers realized that the resuscitation and resurrection of China lied primarily in the hands of our children domestically, so they began to seek for materials abroad. For instance, Lu Xun, a great Chinese writer, strongly call for Chinese people to “save our children” who had been seriously lack of spiritual nutrition. Lu Xun himself did his best to translate many foreign children books, such as, Little Jean,and Little Peter. Although many materials were selected for political purposes at that time, their efforts indeed hew out a new road to the development of children’s literature. Nevertheless, few attempts had been exerted to explore translation theories ever since. Many translators merely focused on the linguistic level. 

    In Skopos, theory translation is defined as a part of the action of translation which is viewed as the process of transferring message transmitters produced by translators. This thesis is aimed at providing an in-depth discussion of the functional translation theory, especially the Skopos theory, in order to identify its advantages, especially in guiding the translation of children’s literature.

2. Literature Review文献综述

Children’s literature, which includes fairy tales, novels, plays and rhymes, serves as spiritual food for children during their growth. There are thousands of excellent children’s literacy works both at home and abroad. Yet in the past years, there are only a few experts and scholars before 1995 to study children’s literature. And also, few of them have given any precise definition of it. Nevertheless, they, to a certain extent, are limited by considerable problems which exist here and there.

First, the problems stem from society. In a social environment where most people took children as small adults and expected them to behave accordingly, few considered that children might have their own interests and educational needs . Although attitudes towards children in the family and society have changed a lot over time, children, especially children’s literature are still considered less important than the others.In China, before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the ancients had no interest in the inner development of children, and thus seldom regarded the child as a child. Nowadays the whole society pays much attention to the education of children. But from the school education to the private education at home, from those education departments to a training center, the children are busy with all kinds of learning courses.