Reconstruction Of Artistic Conception In Translating Zhu Ziqing's Prose From The Persepective Of The Aesthetics Of Reception

Successful prose translation depends on the transference of artistic conception, which is an artistic field in which the readers are led to an imaginary space through vivid description as well as the fusion of feelings and scene. Prose, known as "free form but focused spirit", constructs its artistic conception through the combination of formal elements with non-formal elements. The realization of artistic conception needs not only the creation of the writer, but also the participation of the readers.According to the Aesthetics of Reception, readers occupy a dominant position in the appreciation of the artistic conception. Two important concepts in this theory are horizon of expectations and indeterminacy, which correspond with the real and virtual scene in prose. Therefore, the adoption of the theory into the construction of artistic conception is quite feasible.This thesis aims to find out the suitable approaches to the translation of Zhu Ziqing's prose. The first step is to figure out the formation of the artistic beauty in Zhu's prose. Living in a special period in the history of Chinese literature, Zhu has formed his unique style of prose writing, characterized by the usage of Vernacular Chinese, rhetorical devices and authentic feelings. Consequently, to reconstruct the artistic conception in his works, the translators normally would go through two steps: interpretation and reconstruction. The translators should first of all fully understand how the original writer constructs its artistic conception and then use their bilingual and bicultural competence to achieve the same or similar aesthetic feelings as the original.Taking the acceptability of the target readers into consideration, there are mainly three methods. In order to retain the original flavor, the translators should try to seek equivalent expressions in the target language as long as it is possible. For the transference of emotions, the best way is to adopt empathy, namely, to translate the original writer's emotions with emotions. However, owing to the widespread cultural differences and other factors, it is quite uncommon to find equivalence between Chinese and English. Therefore, the translators should resort to other ways in the recreation of the original expressions, images and others. Whatever approaches are taken, the translators should help the readers fill in the gaps left by the writer on purpose so as to have an accurate understanding of the implied meaning. In other words, the translators should adopt suitable methods in accordance with the concrete situations in order to make the target readers'horizon of expectations fuse with that of the original writer, and hence to realize the reconstruction of the artistic conception in Zhu Ziqing's prose.