Compensation For Cultural Losses In Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

The present study investigates compensation for cultural losses occurring in translation of literary works from English to Chinese. Translation is an intercultural communicative activity. Hence, a loyal representation of the cultural contents of the source text is one of its leading tasks. However, owing to those differences in social customs, religious beliefs, thought patterns and so on. cultural losses are unavoidable. Then, how to avoid or reduce those losses to the minimum by compensation becomes the foremost task for the translator.In light of the previous studies concerning loss and compensation at home and abroad, the thesis shows the necessity and possibility of translation compensation. As a particular cross-cultural communicative activity, translation does have the issue of untranslatability. However, there is no un-compensability. The paper underlines the fact that whatever the losses are. they can be made up for to a certain extent. Then, based on the discussion about the relation between culture and translation, it explores the inevitable phenomenon of cultural losses occurring in literary translation from English to Chinese with a list of the main factors contributing to those losses. It argues that cultural losses can be and should be made up by various compensation methods. The paper discusses how to enhance the quality of translations through compensating cultural losses to show its significance to literary translation.Reception aesthetics, a theory of literary criticism with unprecedented emphasis on reader’s dynamic role, shows its special consideration for target language (TL) readers" reception process, which plays an active role in helping translators choose appropriate compensation methods to improve the acceptability of target texts. The author of this thesis attempts to introduce reception aesthetics into the study, in the hope of finding a new theoretic perspective for compensation study of cultural losses. Through a detailed analysis of some key concepts of reception aesthetics and their respective enlightenment on translation compensation, the thesis explores the principle for compensating cultural losses required by Reception Aesthetics. It emphasizes that the translator should take their TL readers" current reading expectations into consideration in the process of translation so as to produce readable and acceptable translated versions. It indicates that TL readers’ acceptance of source-language culture is gradual and their horizon of expectations is a dynamic process. The key to properly handling the degree of compensation lies in the correct assumption about TL readers’ acceptance In general, the compensation degree is gradually lowered along with the enhancement of TL readers" acceptance.This thesis chooses Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and its Chinese version translated by Professor Zhu and his co-translators as the objective of the case study. The reason why the author chooses this novel is not because it instantly catapulted to the top of bestseller lists around the world as soon as it was released, but because it is in itself a small encyclopedia of western culture, involving a good many various fields, such as history, religion, architecture, and mathematics. The translation of such a novel will definitely witness many cases of cultural losses. However, its Chinese version was reprinted eighteen times in the year of2004and caused a sensation in China. The successful translation of this culture-loaded novel shows that cultural communication is possible in virtue of suitable compensation methods. The thesis discusses the specific compensation ways of reducing or avoiding the cultural loss adopted by the translators in the hope of providing a reference for the translators to choose an appropriate way to deal with cultural losses.In the end. this thesis concludes that: according to reception aesthetic, in the process of compensating cultural losses, the translator should abide by the principle—retain the aesthetic value in the original text as well as ensure the TL reader the right of acquiring the pleasure of cultural exploration. Based upon a detailed analysis of some typical examples in The Du Vinei Code. it is found that some effective compensation methods can be used to make up lor the cultural losses. The choice of compensation techniques is determined by many factors, most importantly, the translator’s own taste and preference, and then the translation purpose, the readership as well as the text type, and that there being no hard-and-fast rules for applying those techniques, one technique is as good as the other as long as it serves the translator’s purpose. In a word, the translator should adopt them flexibly to make a best choice.