从接受美学的角度看《哈利波特与魔法石》的英汉翻译_英语论文

A study of the English-Chinese Translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics

摘要

一部好的文学作品，能够引起不同地区、不同语言，甚至不同文化范畴的人们的共鸣，受到追捧。英国女作家J·K·罗琳以其丰富的想象力和华丽的文采，精美的词汇将《哈利·波特》系列作品推上了英国文学的又一个新的高度，该系列作品在全球一百多个国家内发行，销售量均居于前列。《哈利·波特与魔法石》作为其成名作，是我认为写得最有趣且用词精妙的一本。在中国，人民出版社于2000年便推出了其中文版本，在很长一段时间高居畅销书榜首，其翻译起着举足轻重的作用。

运用接受美学的思想对儿童文学作品进行翻译，是翻译的一种策略。接受美学这一概念是由德国康茨坦斯大学文艺学教授尧斯在1967年提出的。尧斯认为，一个作品，即使印成书，读者没有阅读之前，也只是半完成品。他指出，接受是读者的审美经验创造作品的过程，它发掘出作品中的种种意蕴。经典作品也只有当其被接受时才存在。读者的接受活动受自身历史条件的限制，也受作品范围规定，因而不能随心所欲。我国人民文学出版社于2000年9月推出了《哈利·波特与魔法石》的中文版，其译者为苏农。据一项问卷调查表明，《哈利·波特》奇幻的故事情节，生动而充满童趣的话语是吸引读者尤其是小读者的原因。因此，作者试图用接受美学的翻译思想来分析《哈利·波特与魔法石》的汉译本（人民文学出版社），探析其翻译取得成功的原因。

本论文的目的在于提出从接受美学的视角出发从事儿童文学的翻译工作， 简要描述接受美学基本思想、发展及其与文学翻译研究的关系，在接受美学的指导下，分析《哈利波特与魔法石》（人民文学出版社版）汉译本中，译者如何运用接受美学的思想对文章进行翻译，评价其效果，并基于接受美学的理论提出自己的翻译，为己经进入和即将进入中国的外国文学作品（特别是儿童文学作品）的英汉翻译提供一些思考。

关键词：接受美学，儿童文学，翻译，归化，异化

Abstract

As is often the case, outstanding literary works find an echo in different regions. More often than not, such works will gain admiration from people of diverse languages and cultures. Owing to rich imagination and elegant words combined with gorgeous literary talent, British writer JK Rowling helped achieve a new climax in British literature after her publishing a series of works of Harry Potter. The book’s sale leapt into the front ranks in more than 100 countries, which was also the truth in China. As the famous work leading Rowling to fame, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone is personally the most interesting and particularly fine in wording. However, the successful publicity of literature works, especially oriented to crossing its borders, calls for a translation just to the point. In other words, translation plays a decisive role in the original works’ publicity. In China, People's Press has put out a Chinese version of Harry Potter, which for a long time topped the best-sellers , arousing a heated discussion on the internet.

The exact concept of the perspective of reception aesthetics was come up with in 1967 by literature and art professor Jauss in Konz tans University of Germany. The core of the concept is to start from the audience and the acceptance. According to Jauss, a work, even if published, is just semi-finished without readers’ reading. He claims that aesthetic practice involves three aspects, that is, literature creation, communication and acceptance. In the process of literature acceptance, readers create the work in their mind by their experience in aesthetics, during which the implication and values of the work are exploited. As for classics, they can only exist with acceptance, which is often limited to readers’ knowledge levels and contents of the works. At this understanding, a translation at one's own will is not recommendable. It is through their works that writers realize the communication with readers. To sum up, literature works are about the interaction between writers and readers. A finished work is one accepted by readers. In translation, applying the perspective of reception aesthetics to children’s literature translation should be taken as a strategy.The Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone, published by The People's Literature Publishing House in September, 2000, was translated by Su Nong. A survey carried recently owes the charm of Harry Potter to its magic plots and lively, playful words, which contribute much to its attraction among various readers, especially children. Articles dealing with the perspective of reception aesthetics are in large numbers, but little relating to a translation of Harry Potter has ever been mentioned. Though some have made analysis about the content, still little was said concerning its translation strategies , merits and demerits.

This paper proposes the idea of basing children’s literature translation on the perspective of reception aesthetics, briefly introducing basic theories of aesthetics, its history and the relationship between literature translation study and aesthetics. Under the guidance of the perspective of reception aesthetics, the paper makes an anylasis of the Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone（The People's Literature Publishing House）. The paper also makes clear the way the translator takes and evaluates the merits and demerits existing in the translation. Based on the theory of the perspective of reception aesthetics, this paper offers a translation of my own. This paper intends to give strategies for future translators devoting themselves to foreign literature translation, which I expect can bring better results in the process of culture spreading.

Key words: the perspective of reception aesthetics, children's literature translation, demostication, foreignization 

Contents

摘要 II

Abstract III

1Introduction 1

1.1 About Harry Potter and the Sorerer’s Stone 1

1.2 Objective of the study 1

1.3 The layout of the paper 2

2Literature review 3

2.1 Definition of the receptional aesthetics 3

2.1.1 Responsing Inviting Structures(Appealing structures) 3

2.1.2 Horizon of expectation 3

2.1.3 Subjectivity of Translators 4

2.2 Previous studies of the translation from the receptional aesthetics 5

3Analysis of the translation from the perspective of receptional aesthetics of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 9

3.1 Using reception aesthetics in the English-Chinese translation of Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone 9

3.1.1 The translation of the names 9

3.1.1.1 Names of the characters 9

3.1.1.2 Names of the foods 9

3.1.1.3 Names of the wizardry sports 10

3.1.1.4 Names of the curses 10

3.1.1.5 Names of the places 11

3.1.2 Four-character idioms 11

3.1.3 Parataxis in the Chinese version 12

3.2 Remarkable effects of applying the theories of Reception Aesthetics to 

English-Chinese translation of Happry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 13

3.2.1 Simple and lively 13

3.2.2 Humorous and witty 14

3.2.3 Language of chinese characteristics 15

3.2.4 Rich in imaination 16

4Suggestions for the English-Chinese Translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone based on receptive aesthetics 19

4.1 On names 19

4.2 On sentences 20

4.2.1 Dialogues fail to be colloquial enough 20

4.2.2 Improper collocation 21

4.2.3 Repetition 21

5Conclusion 23

Works cited 25