Influence Of Reader's Subjectivity On Chinese Translation Of English Idioms From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Translation is a creative activity, and it involves the original author, original text, the translator, and the reader. The translation process can be roughly divided into two stages: the translator's comprehension of original stage; the reader's reception stage. The two stages exist and connect between each other, which is the bridge for the readers to understand and appreciate the original text. However, in a long-term, the translation circle is of main attention on the first stage. Researches on the subject and object are about the original author, the source text, the translator and translated text, and their mutual roles and relationships, meanwhile the second stage of the readers are ignored with the initiative of the translation activities. In fact, as a kind of behavior, translation has its purpose for serving readers. Only get readers'reception and approval, can translator's works be reasonably acceptable. Therefore, to a certain extent, in the process of translating, the translator should consider readers and their reception level and reading demand. And translators need to conform to the requirements of the readers, not blindly faithful to the author's point. This paper firstly discusses the shift of the conventional paradigm, introduces the evolution of reception theory, representing characters and major points. The paper introduces some important terms of receptive aesthetics, and also tries to analyze the embodiment of the reader's subjectivity. Contemporary receptive aesthetics theory holds that text meaning is uncertain. Text meaning depends on reader's reading and readers of textual interpretation play a main role. In the process of translating, the text meaning depends on the translator's former understanding; the creation of translator on a creation degree of freedom is limited, which shall be based on the original text. The translator is going to believe the readers'accept ability, and give full play to the subjectivity of the readers. The reader is undoubtedly the most active subject in translation activities. In the 1970s, along with the rise of describing translation, of western translation as appeared facing the target language culture translation study tendency, translator's subjectivity influenced more and more attention, and the text-centered paradigm challenged the conventional paradigm. With the rise of reception aesthetics as a translation theory, reader's status gets a great improvement. The theory is that the reader has their"horizon of expectation"before reading. Reader's"horizon of expectation"is not static but dynamic. When a reader reads idioms, if he finds idioms translation in contact with his unfamiliar foreign culture, he will guess according to context or comments, accept this fact and store it in their knowledge structure, and then correct and expand his expected visions. Readers play an important role in the process, so the translator must consider the receiver's horizon of expectation, which can help translators successfully convey idioms with cultural differences. According to reception aesthetics, reader's reading experience constitutes reader's horizon of expectation in turn to affect the reader's acceptability. Yet domestic articles from reception aesthetics of reader's subjectivity are not many. Most attentions are at translator's perspective, and the center position for readers is only seen in interpretation. The basic ideas of reception aesthetics for the reader's subjectivity of the research are not comprehensive.This paper, from the angle of reader, taking the ideology of reader's active participation in text construction, and taking the case study of the famous translation Gone With the Wind as an example, analyzes the influence of reader's subjectivity on idioms translation. The article is divided into six parts:Chapter One is the introduction of the choice of the research, the objective of the study, and the background knowledge on the translation of the novel Gone With the Wind.Chapter Two introduces the background and main ideas of reception theory which includes: concept of literary works and reader's role and status. The main part of this chapter is to introduce key elements of translation subjectivities and the research on reader's subjectivity in the history of literary criticism which helps to verify reader's subjectivity as the most important proportion to its important role in the history of literary criticism and translation theory.Chapter Three provides a detailed introduction to the research on idioms. The sources, definition and classification of idioms are brought into discussion in this chapter.Chapter Four introduces the necessity of the research of idiom translation, the difficulty of idiom translation and the different perspectives of idiom translation. Try to introduce the reception aesthetics in the process of idiom translation.Chapter Five firstly introduces the English novel of Gone With the Wind, its writer and translators. Then strategies on idiom translation in Gone With the Wind and reader's subjectivity insights toward the idiom translation in the novel are illustrated. Reader's role and status, horizon of expectation both help translators to adjust their way of translating.Lastly on the basis of analysis of the first five chapters, this paper at last reaches the conclusion: through the analysis of the idiom translation of Gone With the Wind, the present author thinks reader's subjectivity influences the translator's translation. The success of translation works can not get rid of the translator's consideration to the reader's subjectivity. Translator cannot ignore the reader, and should consider reader's need, and reading level to adopt the appropriate feasible translation method. In addition, considering readers'subjectivity is not the only element for choosing the translation method, on the other hand, the translator's personality, text and the purpose of translation also have their important influence.