A Study On The Translation Of The Peony Pavilion From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Reception Aesthetics emerged in Germany in1960s as a theory of literary criticism. It begins to focus on the readers and therefore is a challenge to traditional literature theory which only concentrates on the writer. Hans Robert and Wolfgang Iser are known as the "binary stars" of Reception Aesthetics. They put forward such important terms on the basis of hermeneutics and phenomenology as "fusion of horizons","horizon of expectation","indeterminacy" and "aesthetic distance".Reception Aesthetics belongs to the category of literary theory, but can it be applied to the study of literary translation? Many scholars have conducted researches on the feasibility of the combination of Reception Aesthetics and Literature Translation as early as1990s. They applied some conceptions in Reception Aesthetics such as "fusion of horizons","indeterminacy", etc. to translation studies to highlight the "participation" and "creation" of target language readers in the translating process.As the "gem" of Chinese classical drama, The Peony Pavilion is featured with allusions, idioms, historical figures, arias, names and addresses that are full of connotations. When translating these culture-loaded words or phrases, the translators should give a full consideration to target readers receptivity, horizon of expectations and aesthetic appreciation. etc. This thesis makes an analysis of Wang Rongpei’s translation version The Peony Pavilion from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics. It adopts the four key notions of Reception Aesthetics:horizon of expectations, fusion of horizons, indeterminacy and aesthetic distance to do research from four aspects.The thesis first explores whether the translated text meets the target readers’ horizon of expectations in terms of the translation of rhetoric devices, allusions, addresses and names. Then it analyzes how the translator creates as many "overlaps" as possible to realize the fusion of horizons between target readers and the source text on phonological, lexical and syntactical levels. As for the "indeterminacies" in the text, should they be kept or "concretized" in translating process? At last the thesis expounds how the translator adjusts the aesthetic distance to adapt to the target readers language code, cultural custom and aesthetic appreciation. Through a systematic study, the thesis finds that the translator takes the target readers into full account during his translating. He also flexibly adopts various methods such as transliteration, amplification, omission, free and literal translation, etc. to meet readers receptivity in the translation.This thesis includes altogether six parts:introduction; literature review; theoretical framework; a study on the translation of The Peony Pavilion from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics; the major methods Wang Rongpei adopts in the translation of The Peony Pavilion; conclusion. The thesis expounds the research background, research purpose, research questions, the research methodology and the significance of the thesis in introduction part In the literature review part, the author discusses the previous translation studies on the basis of Reception Aesthetics both abroad and in China and some previous studies on translation of The Peony Pavilion. Then the author points out the limitations of previous studies and the necessity of this study. Three parts are incorporated in the theoretical framework:A brief introduction to Reception Aesthetics, key notions of Reception Aesthetics and the enlightenment of the theory on literary translation. The core part of the thesis focuses on in what ways Reception Aesthetics is manifested in Wang Rongpei’s translation and the major methods adopted by Wang Rongpei in his translation of The Peony Pavilion to meet readers receptivity. The conclusion part, supplementary to foregoing chapters, is a summing up of this thesis, and will cover the major findings and implications of the study as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.Through the analysis of Wang’s translation of The Peony Pavilion, the study reveals that translation is a process done by the translator but to some extent is affected and participated in by the target language readers. Professor Wang takes the readers into full account when translating The Peony Pavilion. Under the guidance of Reception Aesthetics, the thesis is expected to produce some references for translators in translating Chinese classical literature, especially drama translation, from a new perspective.