A Study Of Translator's Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics

Since the beginning of the culture turn in the 1970s, the translator has managed to emerge from the obscurity in the field of translation studies and has received due attention. They were no longer in the backseat and regarded as the puppet dancing to the tune of the source language author or of the source text itself. Against this backdrop, the translator's subjectivity is thrust into the spotlight. An avalanche of articles and research papers have been published, a large number of which attempt to justify the rights of the translators. However, this shift in the translation studies sometimes seems to be more of a bane than of a blessing because of several reasons. First, the caution and impartiality seem to have been cannibalized with the ever increasing awareness of the translator's subjectivity. Second, quite a few studies focus on the subjectivity just for the sake of the subjectivity itself. What's worse, the translator's subjectivity has been stretched to the point of blurring the boundaries between itself and translator-centeredness. Once the latter one takes the lead, then the consequences will be beyond imagination. Therefore, it is quite necessary for us to analyze the translator's subjectivity in a more rational and well-grounded way. Then how? The answer to our pray will be the employment of the philosophical hermeneutics.Philosophical hermeneutics is the study of understanding and interpreting the textual meaning, in which the three key concepts namely prejudices, historical understanding and fusion of horizons all have to do with the subject of the interpreting—interpreter or translator. Quite a few notable philosophers have given their own voices about the translation issue, citing it as the typical example in the hope of enabling people to have easy access to the essence of the philosophical hermeneutics. As a result, a win-win situation has been created. The recent years have witnessed the increasing number of researches which make heavy investment in translation issues from the perspective of philosophical hermeneutics.This thesis analyzes the translator's subjectivity through the lens of philosophical hermeneutics, thus justifying the translator's subjectivity in a more convincing and objective way. Besides, a case study of two English versions of Shen Congwen's Biancheng is made here, in which the differences in two translation versions caused by the translator's subjectivity will be further analyzed in the context of philosophical hermeneutics. What's more, this thesis warns against the abuse of the hermeneutics which results in reducing the translator's subjectivity into the translator-centeredness. At the end of the thesis, it is argued that the responsible attitude taken by qualified translators towards the SL and TL culture will help achieve the true translation.