Translation and Reception of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels in China

Jiachen LIN, Changbao LI

Abstract


Gulliver’s Travels, a world-famous novel, has a great influence among the Chinese readers. Based on the reception theory, this paper first attempts to present a brief translation history of the novel by analyzing its various Chinese versions in different historical periods of China, and then discuss its reception among both the professional readers and the ordinary readers in China in the light of both the professional readers’ reviews on its translation published in the articles and journals of CNKI and the general readers’ comments on its translation published in the “Douban Reading” website, finding that the professional readers’ reviews are quite positive and the recognition and reception of the translation among the general readers is very high. Finally, the paper holds that the popularity of Gulliver’s Travels in China contributes much to both its attractive plots and its high-quality translations.

 


Keywords


Gulliver’s travels; Chinese translation; Reception; Reception theory

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11480

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