On Contemporary Translation Of Children’s Literature In Light Of Jauss’s Reception Theory

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) is a British Norwegian world-renowned writer,honored as “British O. Henry”. He is a writer of both adult’s and children’s literature.The humorous and intelligent books full of imagination attract little readers aroundthe world. They cause a sensation in western world and receive numerous praise andlove. However, Chinese scholars’ study of Dahl is limited and focuses mainly on hisliterary style and rarely on the translation and acceptance of his writings. This paperattempts to discuss Ren Rongrong’s versions in light of reception theory.The thesis first introduces reception theory and Jauss’s main theses, anddiscusses its guiding significance to the translation of children’s literature, from theperspectives of role and status of children readers, children’s horizon of expectationsand evolution of children’s literature. Then, the thesis discusses the selection ofmaterials to be translated. After analyzing the living circumstances, psychologicalcharacteristics and book market of contemporary children, the thesis argues that theirhorizon of expectations is quite different from that of children before and has newrequirement to translators. Through analyzing reasons of Ren’s selection of Dahl’swritings and deducing his translation purposes of fusion of children’s horizon ofexpectations and promotion of domestic literary evolution, the thesis tries to proposesuggestions of selecting materials to be translated. Secondly, the thesis discusses thetranslation principles and strategies of children’ literature, taking Ren’s translation asexample. Ren’s translation principles of “faithful”,“colloquial” and “delightful” areconcluded. Finally, through textual analysis from the phonetic, lexical, syntactic andrhetoric level, some translation strategies are concluded. Besides, Ren’s translationthought of child-orientation and its enlightenment is discussed.