Analysis Of The C-E Translation Of Lang Tuteng Viewed From Translator’s Subjectivity

For a long time, traditional translation studies had been text-oriented or author-oriented withemphasis on translation criteria, methods or skills. Translators have been put in a marginal status ofsubject of translation as a supporting role without subjectivity. Since the cultural turn in the 1970s, thetranslator’s indispensable role in translation activity has been recognized, leading to increasingconcern about subjects of translation and particularly studies on the translator’s subjectivity.Lang Tuteng is a lengthy novel mainly describing the colorful lives of Mongols and their storieswith the wolf on the grassland. Since its publication in 2004, it has created a big stir and topped thebest selling books of that year. The Penguin Group purchased its English copyright in 2005. TheEnglish translation was performed by American sinologist Howard Goldblatt and turned out to beanother success when first released in 2008. This is of great significance to the output of Chineseliterary works. Therefore, it is necessarily essential to carry out a systematic study on the Englishversion and its translator. In view of this, the author of this thesis decides to do a case study on theEnglish translation of Lang Tuteng.This thesis is a tentative study on the English translation of Lang Tuteng from the perspective oftranslator’s subjectivity based on hermeneutics theory and Skopos theory. Through introducinghermeneutics into translation study, we can have a better understanding of translator’s subjectivity inthe understanding and expressing stages in his translating activity. According to skopos theory, thetranslator is obliged to fulfill the intended aim of a translation, and has great freedom to makedeletions, additions or even adaptations to the source text, which also highlights the importance of thetranslator. However, the translator is also constrained by many other factors while exerting hissubjective initiatives. A dialectic approach must be adopted to observe the translator’s role in thetranslation.The English translation of Lang Tuteng is an excellent work that fully demonstrates thetranslator’s subjectivity: firstly, in selection of the source text, the translator enjoys great freedom inchoosing what to translate, but this time it is the Penguin Group that finds Goldblatt. After lookingthrough several chapters of the original text, Goldblatt said yes; secondly, the publishing house’spurpose is to sell the translated texts as many as possible. As for the translator, Goldblatt bearsspecific purpose in mind and his main task is to take full consideration of the intended audience and choose proper translation strategies to produce a translation that can be appreciated by target readers;finally, various strategies, including omission, amplification, and adaptation, were adopted by thetranslator to deal with the discrepancy between the two languages in his English translation of LangTuteng. However, there are also restrictions on the translator’s subjectivity in the process oftranslating Lang Tuteng: restrictions in cultural dimension and restrictions in textual and linguisticdimension. Therefore, the author of this thesis concludes that translation is the result of a combinationof the translator’s subjectivity and restrictions suffered in many aspects. Finally, it is suggested thattranslation criteria or principles should be constructed on the premise of taking translator’ssubjectivity into consideration. For the translator, he or she is required to unite the consciousness ofcreativity and self-restraint to achieve an excellent translation while at the same time should be wellacquainted with both languages and cultures, and be armed with professional knowledge needed, aswell as his intervention to both cultures in translation process in order to achieve effectivecommunication between different cultures.