George Bernard Shaw and his works, exert profound influences on the world, including millions of Chinese readers. Pygmalion was translated by Yang Xianyi in 1956 and retranslated in 1982, 1987 and 2002 respectively. History of effect is important concept of hermeneutics. According to the principle of history of effect, any text is characterized by its positive practical significance. Gadamer’s idea of hermeneutics is helpful for our understanding of the necessity and significance of retranslation. The target text is the afterlife of the source text in time and space. In terms of the history of effect, this paper is devoted to a deep insight into Yang’s translating process of Pygmalion during four different periods of time and to further analyses of the theoretical foundation and specific characteristics of creation and polishing in retranslation, which is designed to offer references for retranslating literary works and the study of Yang Xianyi’s thoughts on translation.

Ma Xiaoxing. Studies on the Acceptance of Yang Xianyi’s Translations of Pygmalion from the Perspective of History of Effect. Frontiers in Educational Research (2020) Vol. 3 Issue 3: 45-50. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2020.030311.

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