Recently, a trend of reflection has emerged in the research of Western literary theories, including the reflection on the theories themselves. However, misreading and misunderstanding of Western literary theories have accompanied the reflection. One of the likely causes is that some researchers do not pay much attention to the fact that their researches are based on translation, and equate the translated version to the original text. This could be seen as an absence of the perspective of translation.  The aforementioned perspective refers to the awareness and action of the researchers in keeping a certain distance from the translated text based on which their study is carried out, including the awareness of transformation, the awareness of context and the awareness of difference. The awareness of transformation means that researchers realize that the translated text results from a shift of languages, with an asymmetry of information owing to this shift. The awareness of context means that researchers bear in mind the cultural context of the specific time and space in which Western literary theories have developed, and the cognitive context of the theorists. The cultural context calls for the literary theories that fit the specific time and space, and theorists invariably develop their theories in accordance with their cognitive patterns. Therefore, relocating the theories in the specific time, space and events, and relating them to the theorists' cognitive contexts conduce to an understanding of the theories in a more precise and in-depth manner. The awareness of difference means that researchers recognize the differences of time and space between original text and its translation. In terms of the differences of space, the emergence and development of the literary theory in its original context reflects its close interaction with literary and social practices, but the ″travel″ of the theory breaks the inevitable connection between the text and the time and space. As for the difference of time, the publication sequence of the translation replaces that of the original works, which hides the inheritance and the echoes among the original works, and highlights the answers of different translated works to specific questions in the context of translation. As the original works were published in different ages, the answers may greatly vary in both theory and method. Inadequate knowledge of the differences may lead to insignificant comparisons among theories from different times and spaces and hasty judgments on the function and value of the theories. This will not only affect the understanding of the theories themselves, but also influence the effective reference to them. The perspective of translation encourages us to explore the origin and development of Western literary theories in the context of the source language and to study dialectically its applicability in the context of the target language. This may help us to deeply understand the core of Western literary theories, to better absorb their essence, and to promote the development of Chinese literature and cultural studies when the translation of and the introduction to Western literary theories are gaining increasing popularity at present. In the present context of the growing trend of reflection on Western literary theories, this paper points out a gap in the research and its influence on the reflective research. Starting from the theories and methods of translation studies, this paper reveals the nature of the gap and proposes the possibilities of filling this gap and improving the effectiveness of the research on Western literary theories. With reference to translation theories, this paper adopts a new perspective which reveals the complexity of the cross-lingual and cross-cultural Western literary research, puts forward an original view that research should include ″the perspective of translation″. Some of the mainstream views in the current research of Western literary theories in China are discussed. From the perspective of methodology, this paper is an attempt of interdisciplinary research that combines the study of literary theories and translation studies and expands the research methods of Western literary theory studies.