A Study Of Wang Keyi's Chinese Translation Of Pride And Prejudice From The Perspective Of The Reception Theory

Pride and Prejudice is the first and most attractive novel by Jane Austen. It is also recognized as a rare treasure in the world's literature library. Since the 1950s, there have been at least 12 kinds of Chinese versions of Pride and Prejudice, among which Wang Keyi's (王科一) version is relatively early and one with comparatively far-reaching influence in China. On the basis of these facts, the author of this thesis has a huge interest in Wang's Chinese translation of the Pride and Prejudice. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze Wang's translated version from the perspective of the reception theory.As a new type of paradigm and methodology in literature research, the reception theory (also known as the reception aesthetics) transfers the focus of literary criticism theory from the author and the work to the text-reader relationship. It holds that the reader's reaction serves as the standard of evaluating a work, so the reader's social experience, aesthetic orientation and receptivity, in other words, the "horizon of expectations", should be considered by the author during his writing process. There will be the "aesthetic distance" when one work cannot meet the readers' "horizon of expectations". Therefore, it is vital for the translator to grasp the reader's "horizon of expectations" to adjust the "aesthetic distance" to achieve "fusion of horizons" so as to ensure the success of the translation.With the German reception theory as the theoretical framework, this thesis employs the three concepts of "horizon of expectations", "fusion of horizons" and "aesthetic distance" to analyze Wang's Chinese translation of the Pride and Prejudice. Because of the long rule of feudal thoughts in China, the Chinese people in the 1950s had little understanding of Western culture and there was "aesthetic distance" between foreign literature and Chinese readers, so Wang adopted the translation strategy of domestication to introduce this classic to Chinese readers to improve their understanding of Western culture, which was consistent with his contemporary readers'"horizon of expectations".The analysis in this thesis intends not only to judge the success of Wang's Chinese translation of Pride and Prejudice but also to explore the reasons for its success. During the translation process, Wang Keyi took fully into account the target readers'language customs, cultural traditions, ways of thinking and aesthetic experience so as to achieve the "fusion of horizons" between readers and the text, and that between the translator and readers. His translated version met the needs of ordinary readers at that time, having a profound influence on society, so it can be considered as a very successful translation. It concludes that the consideration of readers in translation is critical to the realization of translation objectives and values.