Readers' Role As Reception Subject In Literary Translation

The study on the subjects of translation has attracted much attention in the academic circle. Traditional translation studies centered on original text and author have attached much importance to the comparison of original and translated texts, aiming to set up a unified criterion for translation. As a result, translator's role as creator and readers' role as reception subject of the translated text have received little attention.As the translation studies advance, researchers are awakened to translator's role as creation subject and his contribution to translation has been acknowledged widely, whereas readers still remain unnoticed in the process of translation.This paper takes a close look into the evolution of paradigms of studies on translation subjects and introduces Reception Aesthetics into translation studies in order to identify the readers' role."Field of Readers" is the term proposed in the paper which refers to the universal existence of readers' influence through the whole process of translation, including pre-translation, in-translation and post-translation stages. The analysis of "Field of Readers" reveals that readers are playing the role of reception subject in translation.The implication of identifying the readers' role as reception subject in literary translation is elaborated in three perspectives: its significant effect on the translator, on readers themselves and on composing the history of Translated Literature.