Cultural Differences and Translation of Novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

--A Case Study of Two Versions of David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi's English Translation of A Dream of Red Mansions

By Xue Yufei

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement

For the B.A. Degree

Department of English

College of Liberal Arts

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2018

Cultural Differences and Translation of Novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

--A Case Study of Two Versions of David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi's English Translation of A Dream of Red Mansions

Xue Yufei

Department of English

College of Liberal Arts

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: A Dream of Red Mansions has so far been translated into many versions, but the most influential literary values are the two versions of David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi. The reception aesthetics theory has been gradually accepted by people since it was born, providing people with a new perspective. This paper is based on the theory of accepting aesthetics and aims to explore the differences between Chinese and foreign cultures and the resulting differences between literal translation and free translation. Based on this exploration, the two editions of A Dream of Red Mansions have different ideas in translation and try to make it better accepted by target readers. Then we use this method in all the English translations of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has explored the impact of cultural differences on the translation of Ming and Qing dynasties and proposed corresponding translation methods and translation principles. And we hope it can play a guiding role in translating English novels in the future.

Key words: A Dream in Red Mansions, Cultural Differences, Reception Aesthetics, Examples Analysis

摘要:《红楼梦》迄今为止已有多种译本，但其中影响最大的文学价值最高的即为大卫·霍克斯和杨宪益的两版。而接受美学理论自诞生以来逐渐被人们所接受，给人们提供了一种新的视角。本论文立足于接受美学理论，旨在探究中外文化差异，并由此导致的直译和意译的区别。探究在此基础上，两版红楼梦在处理一些译文的区别，如何使得本土阅读者能够更好地接受。由此引申到所有的明清小说的英译上来，探究文化差异对翻译明清小说的影响，提出相应的翻译方法和翻译原则。并且希望能为今后的明清小说英译起到指导作用。

关键词:《红楼梦》；文化差异；接受美学；举例分析

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Purpose and Innovation of this Paper 1

1.2 Research Method of this Paper 2

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Domestic Research on Reception Aesthetics 2

2.2 Foreign Studies on Reception Aesthetics 3

3. Reception Aesthetics 4

3.1 Emergence and Development of Reception Aesthetics 4

3.2 The Significance of Studying Reception Aesthetics 5

3.3 Influences of Translation Aesthetics 6

3.3.1 The Readers' "Expectation Horizon" 6

3.3.2 Creation of "Summoning Structure" 6

4. Influences of Different Cultures 7

4.1 Religious Culture 7

4.2 Ecological Culture 8

4.3 Language and Culture 8

4.3.1 Vocabulary and Association 8

4.3.2 Language and Social Communication 8

4.4 Social Culture 9

4.5 Material Culture 9

5. Suggestions for the Selection of Translation Strategies 10

5.1 Benefits of using Naturalization more 10

5.2 Importance of Readers' Feelings 10

6. Conclusion 11

References 13

Acknowledgements 14

Introduction

As a medium for disseminating ideological and cultural culture, novels have occupied an important position in the history of China's development, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties reached the peak of the development of Chinese novels, which was represented by A Dream of Red Mansions. Since it came out, traditional thinking and writing have been broken. It has great cultural and research value. This paper will focus on two versions of A Dream of Red Mansions written by Yang Xianyi and Hawkes, and take them as the core research object, then explore influences of cultural differences between China and foreign countries from the perspective of the accepted aesthetics. After that, we will achieve some strategies of how to translate Ming and Qing novels through comparative analysis, and finally summarized.

1.1 Purpose and Innovation of this Paper

A Dream of Red Mansions is one of China's four most famous masterpieces and is well-known both in China and abroad. It has been translated into dozens of languages. However, due to the differences in Chinese and foreign cultures, different translation methods and translation principles are used, and all of them have different characteristics. For example, Yang Xianyi mainly use the principle of alienation to make his translation full of the original flavor of the novel, while Hawkes used planning translation methods and translated the novel following readers' mind, so that readers can more easily feel what this novel expresses, and this principle is also called Reception Aesthetics. Both of these two strategies have their own merits and limitations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find the differences between the two versions of English translation from the point of view of Reception Aesthetics. At the same time, it will take the expectation horizon and the summoning structure as the core and considers the readers. To accept different social experiences, aesthetic tendencies, and different abilities, and finally explore a better translation strategy in the perspective of the aesthetics of acceptance theory, in order to make readers more receptive. The innovation of this article is to investigate the different effects of different translation strategies. Translation should not be confined to the language level, but should be placed on a broader culture. So that readers can identify themselves, and also can prove the importance of Reception Aesthetics in the field of translation. This paper will contribute to the translation of the works in the future and will promote the cultural exchange between China and foreign countries. In particular, it will have a far-reaching impact on the promotion of Chinese traditional culture.

1.2 Research Method of this Paper

In this paper, I will use an example analysis method to explore a better translation strategy for readers. As explained in the purpose of this article, the second part of the paper will describe the development of globalization with the progress of society, the related research in the reception aesthetics and translation field in different times, the contrastive exploration of different languages will also be mentioned. And the third part will take A Dream of Red Mansions as an example to do a specific analysis. In the final conclusion, a new idea and translation strategy will be demonstrated. I will mainly use example analysis, comparative analysis and collating of data to prove my idea.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Domestic Research on Reception Aesthetics

In 2005, Liu Zhaoqing discussed the science and artistry of translation, the aesthetic objective and subject of translation, the subjective initiative of translators, the psychological structure of the aesthetics and cognitive schemata, and proposed a theoretical framework for Chinese translation aesthetics; Wang Enke, Li Yu and Feng Xia (2007) deferred from the macro level of translation and culture, translation and language to the translation of difficult sentences, paragraphs, and other micro-levels, so that readers can not only solve problem dilemmas, but also properly use translation skills to deal with problems.

Jiang Qian and He Gangqiang (2008) discussed the main functions of translation, the purpose and classification of translation, and the relationship between translation and culture. It aims to make people have a basic understanding of translation. In the same year, Zhang Shangxin (2008) helped enrich it. The examples include contrastive study of English and Chinese languages from the perspectives of sound beauty, beauty of form, beauty of the United States, of words and texts. The analysis of the aesthetic concepts of English and Chinese nationalities interferes with the beauty of English and Chinese languages, and has a novel perspective.

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