An Investigation Into The Translation Of Rhetorical Devices In Short Stories Of O.Henry In The Light Of Reception Aesthetic Theory

The theory of reception aesthetics is the basic theory of this study, and the main corpus comes from O.Henry's short stories and its Chinese versions translated respectively by Mr. Wang Yongnian and Zhang Jinghao. This study compares and analyzes the two above-mentioned translators' translations in reference to the English version, in order to figure out how to apply the theory of reception aesthetics to facilitate the translation of rhetorical devices so that it would not only retain the original rhetorical effect but also be acceptable by the Chinese reader. From the study the author has drawn the following conclusions:1) For the translation of rhetorical devices, it is not easy to have an equivalent translation because the differences between the western and the eastern cultures. However, the translator should do his best to retain the maximum meaning of Source Text's rhetorical devices.2) As for the application of translation strategies to the rendition of the said devices, we have found that for devices showing small cultural differences, such as simile and personification, literal translation should be adopted; for devices with unique and deep-lying cultural connotations, such as allusion, literal translation plus notes is to be preferred. The main idea of the theory of reception of aesthetics is reader-centeredness. The key point of this paper is through the comparison and analysis of parallel translations, we can find more effective translation strategies for rendering the rhetorical devices in Source Text. In addition, this study also provides some useful points of departure for further study of the translation of rhetorical devices.