A Comparaitve Study On The Two Chinese Versions Of Daddy-long-legs From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Since it was first published in the1912, Daddy-Long-Legs by the Americanwriter Jean Webster has won high popularity among child readers, being the all-timebest seller, republished for many times with numerous editions. With such far-reachinginfluence, however the study on the translation of Daddy-Long-Legs is fewer. Becauseof the particularity of the target child readers, two major terms of Reception Theoryare applied: horizon of expectations and indeterminacy to the comparison of theexamples taken from the two Chinese versions by Yu Fanqin and Ai Ke so as toanalyze the characteristics of the two versions. Through the analysis, both of the twoversions cater to and expand the child readers’ horizon of expectations as well asproperly fill in or keep the indeterminacy. In the translation of children’s literature likeDaddy-Long-Legs, the translator should meet the reading demands of Chinese childreaders, satisfying and expanding their horizon of expectations for their betterunderstanding and appreciation of the literary text. Meanwhile, the translator shouldproperly fulfill or keep the indeterminacies of the literary text, helping the readersunderstand the original work and sometimes leaving room for their imagination to digout the implied meaning.Reception Theory is a methodology of literary theories, which emerged in the1960’s in Germany. The two representatives of Reception Theory are Iser Wolfgangand Hans Robert Jauss. According to Jauss, the reader’s social experiences, aesthetictendency and receptive ability constitute the reader’s horizon of expectations. Iserclaims that there are many spots of indeterminacies to be settled by the readers. In thisway, readers can play an active role in the realization of a text, and make a literary work livelier. Reception Theory emphasizes the role of readers and believes that thereader is not the passive and unimportant factor in the overall relation of the author-thetext-the reader. On the contrary, the literary work can achieve its meaning only whenthe reader understands and accepts it.The thesis is devoted to explore what kind of translation is more suitable for thetarget child readers in the translation of children’s literature from the angle ofReception Aesthetics, with the hope of offering some help for providing guidance forthe practice of children’s literature translation as well as extending the theoreticalfoundation of the research on Chinese versions of the novel and children’s literaturetranslation to a certain degree.