On The Translator's Subjectivity In Eileen Chang's Translation Of The Old Man And The Sea-in Light Of George Steiner's Hermeneutic Motion

Eileen Chang, a well-known legendary writer in the 20th Century Chinese literary history, made not only great achievements in literary creation, but also great contributions to Chinese translation, due to her proficient bilingual writing competence and overseas experiences for years. As an excellent writer, she wrote many works which were widely received by readers and critics. And in recent years, her identity as a translator is recognized by a number of scholars. However, researches upon her mostly focused on summaries of her translation career and on her self-translation or Wu dialect-to-mandarin translation. Any in-depth study on her translation over American literature can hardly to be found. Especially, her translated version of The Old Man and the Sea, as the first Chinese version in China, was ignored by people for a long time. It is so regretful that we need do much more research on Eileen Chang's translation and this first Chinese translated version of The Old Man and the Sea.With the spread of "cultural turn" in translation studies and vision of the research field expanding constantly, the subjectivity of translators has received increasing attention. Scholars began to study the translator's subjectivity from various perspectives. One is Hermeneutics which is a theory about how to understand and interpret the meaning of a text, which not only provides a new perspective for translation study, but also deepens the understanding of the role of translators as well. George Steiner put forward four fold hermeneutic motion steps on the translation for the translator's subjectivity theory, providing a new theoretical basis and research methods.This thesis attempts to analyze the translator's subjectivity manifested in the Chinese translation of The Old Man and the Sea by Eileen Chang based on George Steiner's hermeneutic motion, namely "trust", "aggression", "incorporation" and "compensation". It first comprehensively reviews the study of the translator's subjectivity home and abroad, studies on translations of The Old Man and the Sea, and studies on Eileen Chang's translations and her translation of The Old Man and the Sea. Then it presents the theoretical basis of the thesis, hermeneutics and its implication to the study on the translator's subjectivity, and Steiner's hermeneutic motion. Then, the thesis discusses the overview of The Old Man and the Sea and its translations from the macroscopic perspective and its translator Eileen Chang's life and translation activities, including her life experience, writing characteristics and translation features. Lastly, it makes an endeavor in analyzing her subjectivity in the translation of The Old Man and the Sea, in light of "trust", "aggression", "incorporation" and "compensation".It is hoped that this research can broaden the perspective of study on Eileen Chang's translation, and further confirm the important value of the translated version of The Old Man and the Sea by her.