Abstract

Children’s Literature, as its’ literal meaning shows, is mainly written for children and read by children. Few children’s classics can match the charm of The Little Prince as it has many translation versions. As a children’s literature, it uses plain and innocent language with fairy tale type of structure. Though a children’s book, The Little prince makes several profound and idealistic observations about life and human nature which are covered by the hustle of life. It’s a great work worthy of perpetual and careful reading as it shows people the way back to their hearts. Reception Aesthetics can provide a new perspective as the core notion, for it is reader-centered. It emphasizes on reader’s role, horizon of expectations and indeterminacy and vacancy of the text.

This paper is going to analyze two translations of The Little Prince according to the features of children’s literature from the perspective of the Reception Aesthetics. Through the analysis from phonology, lexicology, syntax and rhetoric, the application of Reception Aesthetics is proved and some suggestive methods are raised. Translators should translate in colloquial ways, choose simple sentence patterns and use vivid expressions.

Reception Aesthetics can guide translators to pay more attention to onomatopoeia, interjections, colloquial expressions, cultural words, figures of speech and simple sentences. Thus they should keep “child-centered” in mind and take children’s “horizon of expectations” into consideration. It is hoped that this paper could attract more attention to this field and promote the study of EC translation of children’s literature in order to translate more high-qualify works for children.

Key words: The Little Prince; Reception Aesthetics; children’s literature; the features of children’s literature

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature Review .2 

  2.1 Children’s Literature....3

  2.1.1 Definition of Children’s Literature3 

  2.1.2 Children’s Psychological and Cognitive Characteristics4

  2.1.3 Features of Children’s Literature 5

  2.2 Children’s Literature Translation..5

  2.2.1 Foreign studies on Children’s Literature Translation5

  2.2.2 Children’s Literature Translation studies in China6

 3 Reception Aesthetics7

3.1 The Formation of Reception Aesthetics7

3.2 The Core of Reception Aesthetics .8 

3.2.1 Status and Role of Readers8

3.2.2 Horizon of Expectation.8

3.2.3 Indeterminacy and Vacancy of the Text9

 3.3 The Guidance on Children’s Literature Translation.9 

4 A Comparative Study on the Two Translations of The Little Prince.10  

  4.1 Introduction to The Little Prince and its translations.10

  4.1.1 Brief Introduction to the Book and Author10 

  4.1.2 Two Chinese versions of the Book .11 

  4.2 The Comparison of Two Versions Based on Reception Aesthetics12

  4.2.1 The Differences in Phonology.12

  4.2.2 The Differences in Lexicology13

  4.2.3 The Differences in Syntax.14

  4.2.4 The Differences in Rhetoric.15

4.3 Suggestive Methods in Children’s Literature Translation16

 5 Conclusion16 

 References..18