Eileen Chang’s Self-translation From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

In the light of the concepts "text’s response-inviting structure" and "horizon of expectations" in Reception Aesthetics,this thesis explores Eileen Chang’s self-translation practice based on a case study of her self-translated The rouge of the north.Firstly,The concept of "text’s response-inviting structure" directs our attention to the fact that a self-translator enjoys the advantage of understanding the original text more comprehensively and profoundly.Analyzing the chosen texts on the semantic,the syntactic,the rhetorical and the imagery level,this thesis has found that Eileen Chang would explain the original more freely and vividly.Secondly,the concept of "horizon of expectations" indicates that self-translation is not merely a translation,but also a supplement to the original.This is true especially of such a case as Eileen Chang’s translation of her own text into her mother language,since what she cannot express thoroughly in English can be supplemented in her self-translated Chinese version to satisfy the Chinese reader’s expectation.Hence,the thesis also demonstrates that Eileen Chang had a strong awareness of her target readers and was capable of employing various translation strategies to meet their different "horizon of expectations" respectively.