Literature Translation From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

In 2015,on the occasion of the 155th anniversary of the birth of India's great poet Tagore,the Chinese version of the "Stray Birds" retranslated by Chinese writer Feng Tang went published after much anticipation.The translation aroused considerable controversy among translators for its explicit language.Some highly controversial lines were accused of blatant disrespect to Tagore.The event climaxed with the official announcement made by the publisher to recall all the copies of the latest translation of"Stray Birds".In fact,reviews of the book are highly polarized.This phenomenon per se proves that traditional translation theories are not suffice to study and assess Feng's translation.Current studies on the Chinese versions of the "Stray Birds" and the translators focus overwhelmingly on translation theories and strategies,while few papers have examined Feng's translation from the perspective of literary theories,especially from Reception Aesthetics.Reception Aesthetics places the reader firmly at the center of the process to realize the meaning of the text.It argues that a text,in the broadest sense,has no fixed meaning.The reception of it is an intense mental activity of the reader.This conscious experience of the reader is integral in the production of text meaning.The emergence of reception theory represents a general redirection in concern from the writer/text to the reader.It also enlightens translators on the practice and assessment of the translation.Based on the three main theoretical inventions of reception aesthetics,the thesis studies the production of text meaning and aesthetic reproduction in Feng's translation with reference to Zheng Zhenduo's version,which has long been considered the classic rendering of the "Stray Birds",therefore providing a new dimension of studying Feng's translation and poetry translation at large.The author concludes that Feng attaches great importance to readers' horizon of expectations and seeks to amplify their aesthetic experience.Therefore,Feng's rendering meets the standards of the reception theory and the readers' expectation,though there are admittedly exceptions in which Feng misrepresents the author 's original thoughts.It reminds us that literature needs to be translated with a dynamic and developing view.