A Comparison Of The E-C Translations Of Dialogues In Alice’s Adventure In Wonderland From Reception Theory

As one of the most notable fairy tales in the19th century, Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland not only attracts children’s love, but also brings new insight to adults’ world. Children and adults have different acceptance in language styles.This thesis compares two Chinese translations of Alice’s monologues and dialogue in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland:Zhao Yuanren’s (1998) and Wang Yongnian’s (2003). The research object is a collection of all233scenes in which Alice speaks, to herself and aloud, as well as, the English version and both Chinese versions. This paper makes a macroscopic and microscopic comparison of Zhao and Wang’s translation by following and answering three questions:(1) What kinds of differences exist between the translation of Alice’s lines in Zhao’s and Wang’s translation?(2) How well do these two translators accomplish their work from the perspective of reception theory?(3) How can Alice’s lines be properly translated under the guidance of reception theory? The major differences between the two Chinese versions are identified, including the differences in diction and structures. The main concepts of Reception Theory in Jauss’s "Horizon of Expectation" and Iser’s "Appealing Structure" are used as the theoretical foundation of this thesis. The differences in the choice of words and structures are classified into macro and micro analysis under the guidance of reception theory:(1) the differences caused by translators’different "HoE" and target readers’different "HoE" and (2) the differences in the translations of "appealing structure," due to the different readers that Zhao and Wang targeted. As for their different translation of appealing structure (the gap the original writer left for the reader to fulfill), the differences are caused both by the translators (the first reader and the reproducer), which decides their main target readers.Children are the main target readers of Zhao Yuanren’s work, while adults are the main target readers of Wang Yongnian’s. Children and adults have different ways of understanding sentences. Both versions are rational to the time that they belong to and to the target readers that they presented to.