On The Translation Ofthe Social Culture-loaded Words In The Story Of The Stone From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

In the late 1960 s, a new literary theory was born and developed in Germany, namely, the reception aesthetics. Hans Robert Jauss, Wolfgang Iser and Hans-Georg Gadamer were the representatives who proposed or supported the theory. Before this theory, the prevailing methods of literary research focused so much on the author or the literary work itself that the status of the readers suffered a long time of neglect. Reception theory’s claim that aesthetic research should pay more attention on the role of the readers’ reception, response and aesthetic experience in literary studies steers the focus of literary criticism from the author or the work towards the reader. Translation, as a special literary practice, should also value the readers’ reception ability in the choice of proper translation strategies and methods so as to ensure the reception effects of the translation work.Hongloumeng, a masterpiece by the Qing Dynasty writer Cao Xueqin, is hailed as the encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society. But it was not until the late 1980 s when David Hawkes first translated this book into a full English version that the western readers had access to this excellent work and the traditional Chinese culture and thoughts contained in it. Culture-loaded words, as one of the most important factors in cultural exchanges, have always been the focal points and difficulties of translation. This thesis conducts a research on the social culture-loaded words in The Story of the Stone under reception aesthetics in an attempt to analyze the possible factors that have affected the translator in his choice of translation strategies.This thesis includes six parts: introduction, literature review, theoretical basis, the analysis of the culture-loaded words in The Story of the Stone, the analysis of the social culture-loaded words in The Story of the Stone from the perspective of reception aesthetics, and the conclusion.Through this research, the author finds that in dealing with the “blanks” caused by culture difference, Hawkes takes the target readers’ horizon of expectation into account and cater to their cultural background and reception ability so that the horizons of the source text and the target readers can be fused with each other. When no corresponding expression could be found in the target culture, the translator tends to adopt the methods of literal translation and paraphrase so as to remain faithful to the original text and satisfy or even enlarge the readers’ horizon of expectation. And when there are corresponding equivalences in the target culture, the translator prefers the method of substitution in order to make the translation natural and easy for the target readers to understand. Although Hawkes’ dealing with culture-loaded words is not perfect in every way, it can yet be regarded as a recommendable version from the perspective of readability and aesthetic value.