A Report On E-C Translation Of Six To Sixteen:A Story For Girls(Chapters6to11) From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics Theory

Children’s literature has drawn increasingly attention from its readers for the great significance on children’ growth.This translation report is based on the selected source text from a novel titled Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls by an English writer named Juliana Horatia Ewing.The novel was published in 1875 and mainly told the story about a young girl’s growth.Only chapters 6 to 11 of this book are chosen for the translation project,which mainly introduce Margery’s growth in the family of Major Buller.Children’s literature is written for children,so it is important to keep children readers in mind when translating such kind of source text.Taking children reader’s psychological characteristics,cognitive levels and reading interests into consideration,reception aesthetics theory,which emphasizes the reader-centered status and readers’ acceptance level,is chosen to guide the translation project.Based on the features of the source text,reception aesthetics theory is used to guide the translation at lexical,syntactic and rhetorical levels by adopting some translation strategies such as onomatopoeia,modal particle,division,conversion,literal translation and literal translation plus annotation to satisfy children readers horizon of expectations.From this translation practice,it can be concluded that reader-centered status emphasized in the translation of children’s literature is more conductive to achieving target reader’s acceptance level.The translator has a further understanding to children’s literature translation and fully aware of her own shortcomings and deeply realize the importance of professional background knowledge in translation.