A Study On Literary Translation From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

The dissemination of Chinese literature is an important part of Chinese culture going global.In recent years,more and more contemporary Chinese literary works have been extensively translated abroad so that foreign readers can feel the charm and beauty of Chinese literary.Different from practical translation,literary translation focuses on literature values.Written by Jia Pingwa,one of the Chinese renowned writers,the novel Gaoxing is revealed through first person narrative,whose language style is humorous,simple and mixed with dialects and spoken languages.Reception aesthetics is a literary theory,whose representatives are Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser.The theory regards the reader as the center role in literary studies,holding the view that the meaning of a text comes from itself and the participation of readers.Influenced by hermeneutics,Jauss puts forward horizon of expectations and fusion of horizons.Affected by phenomenology aesthetics,Iser thinks there are blank and indeterminacy in a text,constructing its appealing structure and waiting for readers’ concretization.Combining reception aesthetics with literary translation brings a new perspective for translation studies.Starting from reception aesthetics,the author of the thesis studies the English version of Gaoxing to discuss the process that the English translator Nicky Harman first as a reader actualizes fusion of horizons with the source text and what translation strategies are used to help target readers actualize fusion of horizons with target text.To realize the second fusion of horizons,Nicky Harman adopts flexible translation methods.When translating metaphor,simile and metonymy,if it is easy to be understood through connecting context,the translator keeps vehicles;if it is difficult,implied meanings are explicated.In terms of translating personification,the translator often takes literal translation to reproduce the lively effect.The thesis divides culture-loaded words in Gaoxing into three types: personal names,proverbs and Shaanxi dialects.When the cultural elements form puns and irony in a name,the translator conveys partial meanings and adds explanation to complement.Literal translation,free translation and idiomatic translation are adopted to translate Chinese proverbs.Dealing with the food names in Shaanxi dialects,the translator keeps food features so that target readers know more about Shaanxi food culture.Above all,taking target readers’ reception ability into consideration,the translator remains blank and indeterminacy as much as possible to broaden their horizon of expectations and help the fusion of horizons.