On Translation Strategies Of Jin Yong's Martial Arts Fictions From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Traditional translation theories adhere to the principle of fidelity and attach great importance to the author and the text in translation.Reception Aesthetics,first as a literary theory,focuses on the readers and emphasizes the role of the readers in literature studies.Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser are two main known scholars of Reception Aesthetics.They interpreted this theory in detail at a macro and micro level respectively.Jauss came up with concepts of “Horizon of Expectation” and“Fusion of Horizon”.According to Jauss,“Horizon of Expectation” shows the reader's certain aesthetic expectation for the text,determines the reader's aesthetic demand for it and affects the reader's activity of reception.Only when “Fusion of Horizon” between the text and the reader is fulfilled to the fullest,can a maximum reception be possible.Iser put forward the concept “Appealing Structure” of the text,which is attributed to “blanks”,“gaps” and “negation” in the text.From his point of view,the reception activity of a literary text is actually a process of the readers' positive participation in interacting with such a structure of the text.After Reception Aesthetics is introduced to translation studies,the role of the readers in translation is highlighted.Reception Aesthetics offers a fresh insight for translation studies.This thesis attempts to study the translation strategies of A Hero Born,a translation of Jin Yong's martial arts fiction by Anna Holmwood,from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics.Through discussing Anna's translation strategies in view of her considerations respectively on “Horizon of Expectation”,“Fusion of Horizon” and “Appealing Structure” of the text,the thesis is aimed to explore how the translator managed to attain the readers' better reception of the translation among target readers.According to the analysis of various cases from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics,it's found in this study that the translator endeavors to promote the readers' understanding of the translation and improve their reading experience by employing the strategies of domestication and foreignization thoughtfully to satisfy readers' expectation for originality and readability of translation at both linguistic and cultural levels,resorting to paratext to facilitate the fusion of horizons between the readers and the text and balancing the “blanks” in the text to maintain its appealing structure.This study aims to explore the secret to the success in translating Jin Yong's martial arts fiction and seek for reference and guidance for the translation of more JinYong's martial arts fictions in the hope that more Jin Yong's fictions can be translated and released in the western world in the future and their unique charm is to be seen by foreign readers.