Sun Zhongxu's Translation Of 1984 From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

George Orwell(1903-1950),whose original name was Eric Arthur Blair, was a famous writer and critic. He did not write many works, of which Animal Farm and1984 were influential and known to almost everyone, because he depicted human's future like a prophet, which was very impressive. Translator Sun Zhongxu who is a great fan of Orwell's works, has translated 1984 into Chinese, and he cried twice when he translated 1984. Actually, the translation of 1984 has been well received by readers. However, up to now, little attention has been paid to Sun Zhongxu's translation and its reception by academic field; therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the translation of 1984 in the perspective of reception theory and study the way Sun Zhongxu handles the translation in light of reception theory in the hope for contributing to other translators' future translation.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first part is an introduction including the research background, research purpose, research methodology, significance and structure of the thesis. The next part is the literature review. Then is the theoretical framework. It investigates origin and development of reception theory in the past decades. Next, it presents key concepts in reception theory, including horizon of expectation, appealing structure and readers' status and role. Finally, it studies the enlightenment that reception theory brings to translation. Then is the main part of the thesis, where the author analyses the translation from perspective of horizon of expectation, and ways to achieve fusion of horizon in terms of translator and readers.Besides, the author also analyses the translation from the perspective of appealing structure, which is further discussed on phonological level, lexical level, syntactical level, rhetorical level and cultural level. Finally, the author analyses role and status readers play in translation and its comprehension. Last, the conclusion summarizes the major findings as well as presents its limitations and suggestions for further study.