| With the economic globalization and the reform and opening-up policy,China's international standing has been raising.People in western countries are eager to know about China's culture,especially Confucianism represented by Confucius.From the strategic plan of culture export,it can be seen that i-cooperation,exchange and integration have become the key concepts of national strategies.As a soft power,culture not only helps to enhance the identity and mutual trust among different countries,but also to improve our international influence.Therefore,how to better spread traditional Chinese culture has become an important issue.The spread of culture is certainly inseparable from translation.In recent years,the translation of cultural classics has become a hot topic.As one of the most influential Chinese enlightenment textbook,Three-Character Classic is covered with a wide range of knowledge,including education,morality history and geography,which can be regarded as an encyclopedia of children.At the same time,the language form of Three-Character Classic is very special with three words in each line with rhyme.Three-Character Classic is a precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.It has unique ideological value and cultural charm.It is listed as the book of the world children's moral education by UNESCO.So far,Three-Character Classic has been translated into many languages and spread overseas.From the translations of British and American missionaries in the late Qing Dynasty to later sinologists and modern Chinese translators,there are more than ten English versions of Three-Character Classic.In today's national strategy of “going out with Chinese culture”,more and more Chinese people are paying attention to the spread and promotion of traditional Chinese classics.The English translation of Three-Character Classic has gradually been studied and discussed by scholars.However,most of these studies just focus on the faithfulness of the translation versions to the original work or subjectivity of the translators in the translation process.Few studies have been conducted on target reader' acceptance.By taking Reception Aesthetics as the theoretical framework,this study takes the traditional Chinese classic Three-Character Classic and its three representative English translations: the translation of English sinologist Giles(1900),the translation of Chinese translator Wang Baodong(2008)and the translation of Chinese translator Zhao Yanchun(2014)as the research objects.With the methods of historical study and documents study,comparative study and descriptive study,it makes an analysis of English translations of Three-Character Classic from the point view of “horizon of expectations”,“fusion of horizons” and “aesthetic distance”,which aims to objectively compare and analyze the features and the process of forming and acceptance of the three versions in details.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to the present study,including the research background,purpose and significance,research questions and method,and the thesis structure.Chapter Two is literature review,mainly summarizes the previous studies on Reception Aesthetics in literary translation and Three-Character Classic both at home and abroad.In this part,it will review the studies in recent decades about Reception Aesthetics in literary translation and the English translation of Three-Character Classic.The characteristics and problems of each study are analyzed on the basis of the classification from different perspectives.After that,the necessity of this study is pointed out.Chapter Three presents the general theoretical basis of this thesis,namely,reception aesthetics.The origin,the development and the main notions of the theory are briefly introduced.And this part also discusses the application of this theory to literary translation.Chapter Four is the main part of the study which deals with the combination analysis of the three translations of Three-Character Classic and Reception Aesthetics from the point view of “horizon of expectations”,“fusion of horizons” and “aesthetic distance”.Firstly it analyzes the target readers' horizon of expectations in the three translations in terms of literary allusions,typical cultural phrases and Confucian Thoughts;then it explores the achievement of the fusion of horizons between the target readers and the original text at the phonological,lexical and syntactical level;finally it discusses the three translations' adjustment to the aesthetics distance concerning the target readers' language habits and cultural custom.Chapter Five is the conclusion which sums up the major findings,implications and limitations of the study and make prospects for future research.The study reveals that translation is a process done by the translator but to some extent is affected and participated in by target language readers.The three translators choose different translation strategies based on their own historical background and aesthetic experience,which makes the translation versions show different translation features and styles.The reception effects of target readers are also different.It has implied that the translator must take the target readers' acceptability into full consideration and enable them to participate in the process of translation.They should make great efforts to maintain the cultural meaning with readability.This thesis provides a new angle and a new method for the study of English translations of Three-Character Classic and hopes to enrich it and provide references for future Chinese classics translation studies. |
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