A Comparative Study Of The Three English Versions Of Biancheng From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Biancheng is the masterpiece of the renowned Chinese writer Shen Congwen. Rich in academic and research values, it is among the greatest works in Chinese literary history. It has been nearly 80 years since its first publication in 1934, and its reception and the study on it have also gone through nearly 80 years. Biancheng has been translated into several languages, and has a positive influence on the Western society. Up to now, there are three English versions of Biancheng. The first version, entitled The Frontier City and published in 1947, is translated by Ching Ti and Robert Payne; the second one, entitled The Border Town and published in 1981, is rendered by Gladys Yang; the third one, also entitled The Border Town and published in 2009, is translated by Jeffrey C. Kinkley. These English versions play a great role in spreading the classical work, and show its immortal charm to different readers of different times from different perspectives. On the basis of the above facts, the author's intense enthusiasm for the English translation of Biancheng is aroused. In this thesis, the author intends to conduct a comparative study on the three English versions of this literary classic from the perspective of reception aesthetics.As a new paradigm and influential methodology of the literary theories in the 20th century, reception aesthetics shifts the focus of literary criticism from the work and the author to the text-reader relationship. The reception aesthetics theorists, with Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser as their representatives, emphasize the readers'active role in the reception process of the literary text. They hold that the criterion for judging the value and quality of a literary work should be the readers'reaction. For this reason, the author should fully consider the readers'cultural background, life experiences, reception capability and reading experience, which form the readers'"horizon of expectations". Apart from this, a literary text embraces a lot of meaning blanks and spots of indeterminacy. Bridging the author's creative consciousness and the readers'reception consciousness, these blanks and indeterminacies call for the readers to expound and interpret the original work according to their own understandings. Likewise, in the translation process, the translator bears a dual role: both as the reader of the source text and the writer of the translated text, so he should pay attention to the reception and reaction of his target readers and make his own comprehension and interpretation meet the target readers'"horizon of expectations"to a maximum extent, thus realizing the fusion of horizons among the writer of the original text, the translator and the readers.The author of this thesis chooses three English versions of Biancheng, which were translated in different times by different translators, to conduct a comparative analysis with the help of the representative concepts of reception aesthetics such as"horizon of expectations"and"indeterminacy". The result of this analysis demonstrates that due to the different historical and cultural background, the three translators possess their own distinctive"horizon of expectations". Furthermore, the target readers of the three English renditions of Biancheng also possess"horizon of expectations"and reception capability of their own. In view of the above-mentioned respects, the three translators concretize the indeterminacies of the original text differently, thus eventually forming the different renditions.Exploring the three English renditions of Biancheng comparatively from the angle of reception aesthetics, this thesis has the intention to delve into the reason why there are different versions rather than judge which version is superior to others. The author of this thesis views the literary classic Biancheng as a gold mine, which can not be exhausted of its connotations through one-time interpretation. Its imperishable glory will withstand and deserve the readers'infinite interpretation. Moreover, just one single rendition can not satisfy the"horizon of expectations"of different readers of different times. For this reason, we have to explore and interpret it through different renditions to get constantly close to its original meaning.