On The Subjectivity Of Translator From The Perspective Of Deconstructive Paradigm

The translator plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the practice of translation. It is the translator who builds the bridge between two cultures and ensures the survival of the source text after hundreds or even thousands of years. However, a historical review of the status of the translator shows that it takes a rather long time for the academic world to recognize the importance of the translator's role in translation. In the past one or two decades, more and more scholars abroad have begun to pay attention to translator's subjectivity, and approached it from different perspectives. Deconstructionism, as one of the recently emerging school, denies the stability of meaning and declares the death of the writer by introducing concepts like différance, trace and intertextuality, etc, into translation studies. Moreover, deconstructionists endow translators with supreme power, claiming that they are the creators who should be entitled with the power to make their own interpretation and criticism, and that it is only through their translation that the original works may acquire new life and enduring appeal, with which they can live on and on in the world.As an important concept in the deconstructive paradigm, translator's subjectivity has also gained more and more attention in the academic world at home. However, relevant research in this area is still in its infancy. In view of this, the present thesis attempts to adopt the method of description, comparison, and illustration to make a detailed study of the subjectivity of the translator from the perspective of deconstructionism, with special reference laid on the case study of the two versions of Ode to the West Wind. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the theoretical background of the research, as well as its scope and significance. To pave the way for further analysis, Chapter 2 explores the definition of translator's subjectivity and the identity of translator in different paradigms. Chapter 3, with its brief introduction to the origin and fundamental ideas of deconstructionism as well as its relationship with translation, mainly concerns the translator's subjectivity under deconstructive paradigm, where writer's authority has been totally denied and translator's status has thus been enhanced through différance and rewriting. Chapter 4, the body of the thesis, makes a detailed case study of the two versions of Ode to the West Wind on the basis of deconstructionism from the angles of différance and rewriting. Other four versions are also cited here as a supplement for deconstructive appreciation. It is argued that due to the instability of meaning and intertextuality of texts, different translators may have different interpretations of the same poem in its meaning and image. What's more, on the basis of "fusion of horizon" with the original, the translator may re-create the original, resulting in the image or style in his translation differentiated from those of the original. From deconstructive point of view, all the différance and rewriting parts may be traced back to the absence of the signified, and the translator can only supplement and enrich the signified through the trace of the signifier. In this sense, the translator and the author, the translated work and the original work should enjoy equal status. Chapter 5, the concluding part, makes a summary of the whole thesis, and points out that "no poem has fixed meanings", so every translation has its value of existence. From deconstructive perspective, it is not only the version but also the translator who should be read and interpreted by the audience. Although deconstructionism has its defects, what it provides for translation studies such as the enhancement of translator's status and the extension of the horizon in this area of research should never be ignored.