Liang Shiqiu's Chinese Version Of Shakespeare In The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Reception Theory,which stresses so much on the active and creative role of the reader's participation in constructing the meaning of a text during reading,provides a new perspective and solutions for translation studies.Based on Reception Theory,this thesis attempts to explore Liang Shiqiu's translation of Romeo and Juliet with the purpose of finding out how the theory explains his translation of The Complete Works of Shakespeare.Reception Theory,which is based on hermeneutics and phenomenology,proposes such vital concepts,as horizon of expectations, appealing structure and aesthetic distance.It completes the transfer of the center of literary study from the text to the readers,and perfects the study of the author-text-reader system.According to Reception Theory,readers involved in literary translation should be attached much importance to, and the translation process should be seen as a new author-translator-target text-reader system.The thesis tries to study Liang Shiqiu's translation activities by probing readers' intervention in literary translation on the basis of Reception Theory.The readers in this context are the translator and the target readers. In the stage of understanding,as a reader,the translator accepts the original text creatively,filling in its "blanks" and achieving "fusion of horizons" with the author because of the influence of his horizon of expectation,preexisting knowledge,aesthetic orientation,as well as the social and cultural environment in which he lives.Meanwhile,he reconstructs his target text keeping his target readers in mind,anticipating their reception level and aesthetic orientation and employing corresponding translation strategies.Thus,the target readers are involved in the process of translation.The next stage is the communication between the readers and the target text.The translator's taking target readers into consideration shortens the "aesthetic distance" between him and them and makes them achieve "fusion of horizons" with him. Correspondingly,the translated version will be accepted by the translator's target readers.This thesis will evaluate the gains and losses of Liang's translation of Shakespeare's works from the perspective of the intervention of the translator and target readers in literary translation in the light of Reception Theory,Romeo and Juliet applied as a case.This paper comprises six parts.The first part,the introduction,gives an account of the research background,questions,methods and the thesis structure. Chapter one is a review of previous research.It surveys studies on the translation of Shakespeare's works,studies on Liang Shiqiu's translation of The Complete Works of Shakespeare,and studies on Reception Theory in translation.Chapter Two deals with the theoretical framework. Reception Theory is explained as a whole first.Then its three main concepts(horizon of expectation,aesthetic distance and appealing structure) are introduced and readers' significance is discussed.Chapter Three discusses the enlightenment that literary translation obtains from Reception Theory:the process of the translation and the status and role of the translator and the readers as viewed from the perspective of Reception Theory.Chapter Four focuses on Reception Theory and Liang Shiqiu's translation of Romeo and Juliet.It discusses how his horizon of expectations influences Liang Shiqiu understanding of the original text, his consideration for readers and his translation strategies in the translation of Romeo and Juliet.Many examples are given to illustrate the discussion.The chapter also discusses different responses to and evaluation of his translation.The conclusion is that the reader intervention does exist in Liang Shiqiu's translation of Shakespeare's works.On the one hand,the historicity and subjectivity of Liang's horizon of expectations,especially new humanism and Confucian thinking intervene in his comprehension and presentation.On the other hand,his consideration for target readers involves their participation, which prompts Liang to employ corresponding translation strategies and methods for them.It is the two kinds of intervention that enable his version to have unique characteristics,shorten the "aesthetic distance" with his intended target readers,and achieve "fusion of horizon" with them.From the perspective of Reception Theory,Liang's translation version is successful.The study on both the translator and target reader intervening in translation also provides a new angle for analyzing and evaluating different versions of the same original text.