Analysis Of Translator's Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Starting from phenomenology,hermeneutics and reader's reception,the theory of Reception Aesthetics,proposed by Professor Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser in the 1960 s,is an important school of literary criticism theory.As the constituent parts of Reception Aesthetics,“horizon of expectation”,“fusion of horizons” and “indeterminacies” denote that the interpretation of the meaning of a text takes a reader's active participation,and the reproduction of the meaning of a text takes the dynamic interaction between readers and literary works.It was not until late 1980 s that Reception Aesthetics was introduced into China.From then on,the theory has been widely used in the field of literary translation.In traditional translation study,the role of the translator as translating subject was seriously neglected.Ever since the “Cultural Turn” which occurred in the western translation field in the 1970 s,the role of the translator has also experienced the change from being behind the scenes to the stage in translation.Later on,translator's subjectivity have gradually become one of the hot topics in translation studies.Reception Aesthetics is intended to expound the exertion of subjectivity of a translator as a reader so as to excavate the connotative and profound meanings of a text.Based on Reception Aesthetics,the present study takes famous Kunqu Opera “The Peony Pavilion” translated by Professor Wang Rongpei as the research object and aims to explore the role of translator's subjectivity in the translation process through three different aspects,namely “horizon of expectation”,“fusion of horizons” and “indeterminacies”.The study has found that in order to meet target readers' horizon of expectation as well as realize fusion of horizons between the author and readers,the translator can give full play to his subjective initiative on levels of phonological,culture,literary quotations and syntactic.At the same time,translator's subjectivity is restricted by the translator's own cultural cognition and ideology of the target language,accordingly,translator's subjectivity is also restricted in filling in the indeterminacies of a text.The study indicates that by way of exerting his subjectivity,the translator makes attempts to satisfy and meet the “horizon of expectation” of the target language readers and realize specific aesthetic goals.The study also illustrates that researches on translator's subjectivity from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics are worthwhile to excavate and reproduce the aesthetic values of literary works,and it provides a theoretical rationale for translator's subjectivity in literary translation as well.