A Study Of English Translation Of Sandalwood Death From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012,which attracts wide attention from all over the world.As a writer who writes in Chinese,his works can be widely accepted by western readers,mainly owing to Goldblatt's translation.Nearly all of Mo Yan's novels are translated by Howard Goldblatt,and Mo Yan also thinks highly of his translation.Goldblatt can preserve the unique “Chinese” style of the original works,as well as convey the implied meanings to target readers.Therefore,Mo Yan's award is the recognition of Goldblatt's translation.Goldblatt's translation is not only faithful to the original text,but also takes the readers' receptive and comprehensive ability into consideration.His translation ideas are consistent with the Reception Aesthetics,which emerged in Germany in the 1960 s as a theory of literary criticism.Then it was applied in translation studies and other fields.Compared with the traditional translation theory,Reception Aesthetics not only pays attention to the original texts and writers,but also lays great emphasis on the vital role of readers in the target language.A successful translation depends on target readers' appreciation and reception.Goldblatt's translation methods are successfully applied in Sandalwood Death,which is one of Mo Yan's representative novels.Sandalwood Death is unique in dialect,sentence structure and rhyme.The thesis analyzes the translation of Sandalwood Death from the perspective of Reception Aesthetics.It adopts the four key concepts of Reception Aesthetics: horizon of expectation,fusion of horizons,indeterminacy and aesthetic distance.First,the analysis of horizon of expectation is made in terms of rhetorical devices,allusions and names and places.Then the thesis explores how the translator realizes the fusion of horizons between target readers and original text at phonological,lexical and syntactical levels.Besides,as for indeterminacy,it is discussed from keeping indeterminacy or concretizing in the translation of the text.Finally,the thesis explores how the translator keeps aesthetic distance to adapt to the language code,cultural custom and aesthetic appreciation in target language.The thesis further explores Goldblatt's translation methods applied in Sandalwood Death on the basis of keeping the original flavor,and meanwhile the translation version can be accepted and appreciated by target readers.Goldblatt takes readers into full consideration when translating Sandalwood Death.On the basis of keeping the information and style of the original text and meeting the horizon of target readers,Goldblatt adopts literal translation and free translation.In addition,he also adopts transliteration,addition and omission methods.It is a perfect way to keep the balance among text,translator and readers,Through the analysis of Goldblatt's translation of Sandalwood Death,the study reveals that translation as a process by the translator,to some extent is affected by the readers in the target language.Howard Goldblatt also takes target readers into full consideration when translating Sandalwood Death and keeps a balance among original text,translator and target reader.Reception Aesthetics provides a new perspective for the translation study.In the meantime,guided by Reception Aesthetics,the thesis is supposed to give some enlightenment to translators in translating Chinese literature.