A Report On E-C Translation Of Kid Activists(Excerpts) Based On The Theory Of Reception Aesthetics

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,China has further accelerated its cultural opening and exchange and continuously introduced excellent foreign literary works.Kid Activists is a book written by the Canadian author Robin Stevenson.It was published in December 2019.The book tells the childhood biographies of Martin Luther King,Jr.,Susan Anthony,Helen Keller,Malala Yousafzai and 12 other inspirational activists through simple brushstrokes and full-color drawings.To a certain extent,this book is conducive to cultivating children’s sense of independence and rights,and shaping the spirit of courage and tenacity.The translator hopes translate this excellent children’s work for Chinese child readers through her efforts.This report is based on reception aesthetics.Reception aesthetics,also known as reception theory,came into being in the middle of 1960 s.The theory holds that aesthetic research should focus on readers’ acceptance,reaction and reading process.The theory also emphasizes the role of readers’ aesthetic experience and reception effect in realizing the social function of literature.The theory of reception aesthetics changes the research focus from text and author to reader,including “horizon of expectation”,“the reader’s role”,“aesthetic distance” and other concepts,and emphasizing the importance of readers.This translation practice identifies junior high school students aged 12 to 15 as target readers.In the process of translation,the translator takes them as the center and analyzes their horizon of expectation so as to maintain an appropriate aesthetic distance between the translation and the child readers,and realize the fusion of horizon.As far as translation strategies are concerned,at the aspects of the reader’s role and horizon of expectations,the translator takes domestication as the main,foreignization as the auxiliary.And at the aspect of aesthetic distance,the translator only takes domestication.Specifically,from the aspect of the reader’s role,the translator domesticates long and complex sentences,while adopts foreignization to translate the logical sentences that reflect the chronological order of the text.From the aspect of horizon of expectations,the translator adopts domestication for four-character structures and idiom to meet directed expectation,and foreignization for culture-loaded words to meet creative expectation.From the aspect of aesthetic distance,the translator domesticates pronouns to show the logic of translation stories to seek the appropriate aesthetic distance.This translation practice can provide some references for translators to translate children literary works.On the other hand,it can provide new ideas for studies of children’s literature and promote the continuous communication between Chinese and foreign cultures.The enlightenment of this translation practice lies in that in the process of Chinese translation of foreign children literary works,translators must fully understand the characteristics of source texts and the target readers before they translate them into works that conforms to children’s reading habits and receptivity.