A Study On The English Translation Of Essays On The City Of Suzhou From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Rooted in the local culture and people of Suzhou, the prose collection--Essays on the City of Suzhou covers many fields, such as history, folk-customs, arts, garden architecture and so on. Because of the special perspective and individual experience in Suzhou, the author presents the special and attractive culture of this charming city.Based on the theory of reception aesthetics, this report analyses the translation of three sections: The People and Gardens of Suzhou, Pingjiang History Street, The Opening of Twenty-seven Years Ago. As a challenge to the traditional literature theories, the theory of reception aesthetics regards the “reader” as the center of the literary theory study and aesthetic research, and attaches more importance to the reader’s participation and creation in the translation. This report discusses the strategies of prose translation from four important concepts: horizon of expectations, fusion of horizon, blank and aesthetic distance, thus improving translator’s bilingual ability and intercultural ability for better satisfying the reader’s aesthetic psychology.This report includes four parts. The first part introduces the task description, including the task background and translation theory; the second part is the task process, which covers the translation process, difficult points and some concrete methods; the third part analyses the translation examples of Essays on the City of Suzhou from different aspects;the forth part concludes the experience and lessons gained in the translation process, and the practical significance of this report.