On C-E Translation Of Scenery Description From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Under the Belt and Road Initiative,the translation of Chinese literary works can be of great significance to facilitate Chinese culture going out and spreading oversea.Scenery description is an indispensable element of literary creation.Likewise,the translation of scenery description plays an important part in the translation of Chinese literary works,and becomes one of the important windows for western readers to know China.Reception Aesthetics was proposed by Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser in the late 1960 s.Based on Reception Aesthetics,literary translation focuses on target readers' horizon of expectation,the indeterminacy of the source text and aesthetic distance between the source text and target readers,and the fusion of horizon between target readers and the source text.Jia written by famous Chinese writer Pa Chin is considered as a milestone of modern Chinese literature.In 1958 Sidney Shapiro translated Pa Chin's Jia into English version,namely The Family.This thesis puts forward C-E translation principles and C-E translation strategies of scenery description based on Reception Aesthetics with a case study of Sidney Shapiro's The Family.At beginning,the key conceptions of Reception Aesthetics like the horizon of expectation,the indeterminacy,the aesthetic distance and the fusion of horizon as well as translation based on Reception Aesthetics are illustrated in detail.Then,the thesis has also explored the definition,classifications,characteristics and functions of scenery description.According to different sceneries,the scenery description is divided into descriptions of natural environment and descriptions of social environment.In addition,Pa Chin's Jia and Sidney Shapiro's The Family are elaborated in the thesis.Translation methods adopted in scenery description of Sidney Shapiro's The Family are analyzed,namely literal translation,omission,and amplification respectively.Last but not least,the thesis puts forward four translation principles of scenery description from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics as follows.Firstly,the target text should meet English readers' horizon of expectation;Secondly,the translator should ascertain the indeterminacy of the source text;Thirdly,the translator should take aesthetic distance between the source text and target readers into account;Fourthly,the translation can achieve fusion of horizons between target readers and the source text.What's more,the thesis puts forward relevant translation strategies for descriptions of natural environment and descriptions of social environment.As to the translation of descriptions of natural environment,literal translation,omission and conversion can be used.In terms of the translation of descriptions of social environment,free translation,literal translation and amplification as well as paraphrase are available.