On The Translation Of Culture-loaded Expressions From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

As a literary theory, Reception Aesthetics was put forward in 1960 s and was based on phenomenology and hermeneutics. Its representatives are Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser. Reception Aesthetics attaches great importance to the interactive relationship between author, text and readers, which shows its possible application in translation studies because translation is a communication between author, translator and the target language readers. Before and in the process of translating, the translator, first of all, communicates with the author as a reader, and then considers the aesthetic experience, aesthetic demand and receptivity of target language reader which are also called the reader’s “horizon of expectation”.Gone with the Wind is a bestseller of American writer Margaret Mitchell. As the first translator of Gone with the Wind in Chinese language, Fu Donghua has wisely adopted many typical domestication methods in translation, which makes it really popular, while, at the same time, it is just because of its seemingly “unfaithful” domestication methods in translating that makes it controversial. However, all the above comments are all just static evaluation of the text but do not consider other important factors such as reader’s demand and receptivity. Nevertheless, reader’s importance to literary works is well emphasized in Reception Aesthetics. There are many researches about the translations of Gone with the Wind, but few have been done on its culture-loaded expression translation. Culture-loaded expressions in literary works are too obscure to translate well, but they have great importance to the text. Therefore, the translation research of culture-loaded expressions which combine conceptual meaning and connotative meaning together is very typical in literary translation.Based on the theory of Reception Aesthetics, this paper has analyzed translation strategies of typical culture-loaded expressions in Gone with the Wind. The important theoretical points in Reception Aesthetics, such as “horizon of expectation”, “indeterminacy of text”, “reader’s subjectivity” and “fusion of horizon”, have played a practical role in translating culture-loaded expressions. In the process of translating, translators continually discover and fill in the “indeterminacy of meaning” of culture-loaded expressions. Through the fusions of original text’s horizon, translator’s horizon and target language reader’s horizon, the translator finally formulates the horizon of the target text which is just the translation according with the translator’s preconception and meets the aesthetic expectations of the target language readers. Fu Donghua attaches great importance to readability and acceptability of the target text and has adopted some expressions familiar to target language readers. Meanwhile, he has employed many flexible translation strategies and methods so as to keep both the source culture flavor and its readability. Although Fu’s version is more or less considered as an “unfaithful” one by some experts, yet its contribution to the spread of this great works in China cannot be ignored.This paper insists that translating process doesn’t consist of simple “word for word translation or free translation”, and it is also not just a static process of transformation between two languages, but an interactive process between author, translator and target language readers. Translator must consider the readability and acceptability of target text. Reception Aesthetics provides translation of culture-loaded expressions with new ideas and asks for translator’s concern of target language readers so as to view translation from a brand new perspective.