On The Acceptance Failure Of Short Stories From Abroad From The Angle Of Poetics

Short Stories from Abroad is a collection of foreign short stories carefully chosen and translated by Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren. Its significance and value can not be underestimated no matter being studied as a literature text or a translation text. In the history of Chinese translation, especially of modern literature, Short Stories from Abroad has its place. But it did not draw much attention of readers when it was first published in the late Qing Dynasty. As a result, it failed to sell well.Based on the theory of poetics proposed by Andre Lefevere, the paper presents an analysis of the root cause leading to the reception failure of Short Stories from Abroad in the late Qing context. Being incompatible with the existing dominant poetics, Short Stories from Abroad is destined to fail on the market. Literature plays an important part in the social life. As a literary form, novels in ZhangHui style enjoy a high popularity especially in the late Qing period. Short Stories from Abroad is destined to be unacceptable to the readers under this condition.Next, in order to cater to the readers, most translators adopt the target-oriented translation strategy either by means of addition or deletion in the late Qing period. However, the Zhou brothers would rather sacrifice the possible popularity of their translation of Short Stories from Abroad to a complete and faithful translation.The incompability of poetics in Short Stories from Abroad with the dominant poetics in the late Qing period also shows in different narrative techniques, different aesthetic tastes and different selection of source texts, etc., which will be discussed later in the body part.