Aesthetic Approaches Of Chinese And Western Translators In Teahouse Translation——On The Basis Of Reception Aesthetic Theory

In the view of the development history of human civilization, drama has been carrying great importance in human’s spirit life. As a significant component of literature, drama especially drama translation in recent years has drawn scant attention to translators owing to the lack of theoretical base. It is undisputed that there is relatively short of foundation in theory on drama and its translation.Reception Aesthetics, also called Reception Theory, as a new approach to literary criticism, was emerged in the late1960s, with Hans Rober Jauss and Wolfgang Iser as two main representatives. The creative idea of Reception Aesthetics is to place the reader a crucial role in the reading process by breaking the traditional text-center. The feasibility of the theory for drama translation lies in laying emphasis on the status of receptors (actors, audience, and readers). The present study is aiming at finding out the guiding significance of Reception Aesthetics to drama translation, through making a detailed summary for the materiel about drama and drama translation, making a profound elaboration for some concepts and thoughts of Reception Aesthetics, such as "Horizon of Expectation" and "Indeterminacies", and making an analysis and comparison for two English versions of Teahouse which is a famous Chinese drama.Through the comparison and analysis, the author tries to find the different aesthetic approaches of two translators---Ying Ruocheng in China and John Howard-Gibbon in Canada so as to draw a conclusion. Out of their different aesthetic objectives and cultural psychologies, Ying Ruocheng is oriented to the performance of drama, serving for the performance of actors and comprehension of the audience in the theatre, while Howard targets at the transmission for the Chinese language and culture, trying to find the equivalence in the form and content of the original text.