The Translations Of Eileen Chang's Fiction From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

In 1950s, the first translated fiction of Eileen Chang in English was refused for publication. In 1971, The Golden Cangue which was seen as the most important fiction of Eileen Chang was published in America. It was collected in A Collection of 20th Century Chinese Fiction and declared the end of translation of Eileen Chang's fiction from Chinese to English. In the beginning of 21st century, Eileen Chang's fiction such as Love in a Fallen City and Lust, Caution were published in their English versions. Penguin Classics added Eileen Chang's fiction on its book list and collected them in its library in order to suggest more people to read. Chang's fiction was not accepted by western readers in the last century. Decades later, in the beginning of 21st century, western readers, scholars and critics put quite a lot of attention on Eileen Chang, and speak highly on her writings. From the angle of Reception Aesthetics this thesis analyzes the different receptions of English versions of Eileen Chang's fiction including publishing situation, translators, choices of fiction for translation, reviews on media and attitudes of scholars and students. Causes of the different receptions are also analyzed in the thesis from four aspects, political, cultural, literary and commercial environment. Because of the changes of environment, the horizon of expectations, aesthetic experiences and purpose of reception also changes. As a writer who can write in both Chinese and English, Chang's fictions in English were translated into her native language as well. When the Chinese versions of her English fiction attempted to land on the mainland it was not an easy work. Guiding by reception aesthetics the thesis analyzes the reception of Eileen Chang's Chinese fiction and tries to find out the causes of different reception situations. The thesis emphasizes the changes of target readers and points out that such changes is the main cause of failure of Eileen Chang when she tried to enter into the Chinese market with translated versions of her English fiction. In the process of entering into another world through translation, the scientific analysis of possible reception of readers is very necessary and important. In the trend of translating modern Chinese literature into western world we should encourage more tries in this sense, and make the literature of our country better understood in the west. Chinese literature should find its right position in the world literature.