Cultural Filtration In Literary Translation

The development of a culture depends on its capability to absorb new knowledge and values from other cultures. With translation being a major way of cultural communication, how to deal with cultural heterogeneity in translation becomes a critical issue, which is what cultural filtration basically tackles. In this sense, cultural filtration is inevitable as well as indispensible in the cross-cultural communication, and it always features in cross-cultural translation, especially literary translation.The recognition of the concept of cultural filtration is closely related to the rise of reception aesthetics, a theory of literary criticism that emphasizes the critical role played by readers in the literary communication and appreciation. The important ideas of reception aesthetics, such as the way of existence of literary works, horizon of expectations and fusion of horizons, can strongly support the argument that a translator must cater to the needs of readers in translation, and cultural filtration, with its root cause being cultural differences, is always orientated to the requirements of TL readers in the translation activity. As a result, analysis of a translation from the angle of reception aesthetics may cast light on the understanding of cultural filtration. Qingyi(《�'衣》)is a novelette containing abundant cultural information, literary allusions and special terms of Jingju (Peking Opera) in particular. Accordingly, the translators have conducted much cultural filtration in their translation--The Moon Opera. This thesis is therefore an in-depth exploration of the translation of Qingyi focusing on the strategies used by the translators to realize cultural filtration and the consequent effects on the reception of TL readers with the guidance of the important concepts of reception aesthetics. Ultimately, conclusions about the characteristics, causes, aspects, strategies of cultural filtration are drawn and hopefully, this endeavor may provide some help for future study on this challenging issue.