A Tentative Study Of Literary Translation Process-Perspective Of Reception Theory

Translation is a very complex process that integrates the dynamic interaction between the author, the source text, the translator, the target text and the target text reader. But throughout the history of translation both in China and in the West, the integrated whole is often treated separately. In traditional translation studies, the study of the text and the study of the translator have been isolated for a long time. In the early period of translation studies, the text was put in the first place and the subjectivity of the translator was forbidden. Later, the subjectivity of the translator was stressed but the determinateness of the text was neglected. The study of translation process, which is a main domain of translation studies, is inevitably in the similar dilemma under the influence of the dominant climate of translation studies. With the development of translation theories, it is evident that this partial approach to translation studies lags far behind the need.As is known to all, reception theory, which is based on the Hermeneutics and Phenomenology, completes the transfer of the literary study center from the text to the reader, and perfects the study of author-text-reader system. It breaks down the text-centered theory and realizes the transition from the text center to the reader center, which makes the reader the constructor of the literary work's meaning. With its development, reception theory gradually developed into a theory studying literature dialogue and communication, and its theoretical center has already shifted from the extreme reader-centered standpoint in the past to the standpoint of communication between text-reader and author-reader at present.As can be deduced, reception theory provides a new perspective to translation studies,which can be proved solidly by the study of translation process from the angle of reception theory. Therefore, based on reception theory, taking translation process as outline, both fusion of horizons and dialogic nature of translation as footholds, the present thesis illustrates in detail the literary translation process.According to reception theory, with emphasizing the reader's important role, translation process, which is an organic whole in the interrelationship of the chain of author-text-translator-reader, is the dialogue and communication with the text as its subject among the author, the translator and the reader. In a translation process, the translator will confront two processes of reception, of which one is the communicative process between the translator and the source text and the other refers to the communicative process between the reader and the target text. Although the latter can be realized only after the translation has been finished, the translator must think about the reader, and anticipate their receptivity and aesthetic standards in translation because his purpose is to make the reader accept the translated version. Furthermore, the publication of the translated version does not mean the end of the translation but means the next new turn of dialogue.By analyzing the translation process itself and the various dialogues in this process, the interrelationship among the factors involving in translation is highlighted and a comprehensive view of translation is suggested as well in this paper.