A Study On Moment In Peking And Its Two Chinese Versions-From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

The term translator's subjectivity appears quite often in the field of translation study in recent years and it has turned a new page in the history of translation. Mr. Lin Yutang was a great master of language who had both the Chinese culture and the western culture in his mind and had taken as his own task the communication between China and the west.In many of his great English novels, which are popular all-over the world, Moment in Peking is the most famous one. This thesis is trying to study the novel with its two Chinese versions from the perspective of the translators' subjectivity. The first chapter makes a brief introduction of the study of translator's subjectivity in recent years as well as Moment in Peking and its two Chinese versions. In the second chapter, an introduction is made of Lin Yutang and his Moment in Peking together with his ideas of translation, of Zhang Zhenyu the translator and his version《京华烟云》, and of Yu Fei the other translator and his version《瞬息京华》, which is necessary for the following discussion.In the third chapter, a brief introduction of translator's subjectivity is given, from subject to translation subject and subject status of translators, from subjectivity to translator's subjectivity and its construction, and to the construction of the subjectivity of the translators of Moment in Peking. At the same time I have introduced two terms—fidelity and creative treason. In the fourth chapter I compare the two Chinese versions《京华烟云》and《瞬息京华》with the original from the perspective of the four main elements of the translators' subjectivity, that are, translation choice, culture background, style of creation and translation missing, on the basis of the study of enormous examples. In so doing I have presented that how the translators' subjectivity had influenced their versions and I have also indicated the advantages and disadvantages of each version, as well as their own features. Lastly, in the conclusion part, I've made clear that the realization of translator's subjectivity means making full use of the translator's subjective initiative. More translation lovers should be encouraged to make full use of their subjectivity to challenge great versions and retranslate successful literary works to add to the variety of translation.