Iser's theory of aesthetic response: strategies on compensation for cultural default in translation

Abstract

Cultural default is defined as the absence of relevant cultural background knowledge shared by the writer and his readers. This paper aims to account for the strategies on compensation for cultural default. Iser's theory of aesthetic response is introduced to explain how the reader acquires aesthetic pleasure from reading the text. In translation the translator should refrain from excessive compensation by filling up the textual gaps of the original and make efforts to preserve the implicit aesthetic effect of the source text. Therefore, it is important for the translator to ascertain the source author's artistic intention implied by cultural default in the original, respect his artistic creation and make the target language reader acquire the pleasure of aesthetic value of the source text. In the course of translation the translator is constantly obliged to make decisions as to what strategies should be adopted to compensate for cultural default. The discussion leads to the conclusion that the author's artistic intention implied by cultural default, cultural factors and receiving contexts in translation are three strategies according to which the compensation methods are determined.