Rendition And Transfer Of Imagery In Fu Sheng Liu Ji-From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Literary language is acknowledged as a form of art and imagery in a literary work is a significant means to actualize the artistic value of the literary work. Though it is an important category in literary theories both at home and abroad, there still exist different understandings and definitions of imagery. After combing the statements and definitions of this term, this dissertation defines imagery as a piece of descriptive language which appeals to senses and contributes to construct a mental picture in the readers' mind. Yi refers to the thought and feelings of the author while Xiang denotes the concrete and perceivable image. To create imagery means the representation of the inner feelings and life experience by using the concrete, specific and visual Xiang. The dissertation then moves on to conduct the analysis and classifications of imagery in Fu Sheng Liu Ji.According to reception theory, the historic life of a literary work would be unimaginable without the active participation of a recipient. In the reception of the literary work, the reader does not play a passive role; rather, the pre-understanding or the horizon of expectations of the reader always exerts influence on his or her interpretation and reception of the work. And the literary work only offers a schematized structure, which guides and conditions the interpretation of the reader. The reception theory introduced in this dissertation is mainly from that proposed by Hans Robert Jauss, which covers the concepts about the actualization of meaning, horizon of expectations and the role of a reader. The dissertation then discusses the enlightenment of reception theory to literary translation. Generally speaking, translation involves the two basic processes including the interpretation of the source text and the representation of it in target language. On one hand, the horizon of expectations of the translator always has an impact on his or her interpretation of the source text; on the other hand, the translator has to give enough consideration to the horizon of expectations and needs of the target readers in the process of representation. Therefore, the translator functions as a bridge or medium in this triad relationship. S/he plays a significant role in the representation of the source text, the consideration of the readerly reception and the final completion of the translated version.The rendition and transfer of imagery is a complex cross-cultural act and the differences between languages, cultures and aesthetics pose challenges. After a brief introduction to the process of imagery translation is made, this dissertation conducts a detailed comparative analysis on three English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji, and a thorough study on imagery transfer is subsequently carried out. The dissertation holds that the translator, while considering the reception condition, has to perform interference in order to achieve an effective rendition and transfer of imagery. Given the particular function of imagery in the literary work, the effect of imagery translation exerts a direct impact on the quality of the version. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct the research on the rendition and transfer of imagery.