A Manipulated Subject:Illustrated With James Legge’s The Works Of Mencius

Though translation has a long history as a human activity, the translator’s status has not always received much attention. Traditional translation theories used to bind the translator with the criterion of faithfulness, whose claim of the original author as the absolute authority marginalized the translator. Since the1970’s, the "cultural turn" in translation studies has broadened the vision of translation research, and under its influence the translator’s status and the translator’s subjectivity have been reconsidered.As an individual with independent thinking, cultural stand, and value, the translator manifests his/her subjectivity in the whole process from selecting the source text to deciding translation strategies and methods in pursuit of the translation purposes, during which his/her motivation and ability exert considerable influence on the outcome of the translation. Meanwhile, the freedom that the translator enjoys is limited. He/She is restrained by various factors. This thesis explores the demonstration of the translator’s subjectivity with the illustration of James Legge’s translation of The Works of Mencius, and to investigate on the basis of Andre Lefevere’s rewriting theory the influence of religion, culture, motivation and literary tradition on Legge’s translation style and other features.The Chinese Classics and The Sacred Books of the East, representative works of Legge, the first western sinologist who systematically studied and translated Chinese classic literature, have long been regarded as standard versions for their faithfulness and exhaustiveness. The Works of Mencius as a classical translation is of high academic value. Though there are considerable achievements in the research of Legge’s translations, they are mostly confined to the linguistic aspect and translation methods and skills. Few studies have focused on Legge’s subjectivity as an independent translator or on his intermediation between the subjective initiative and external restraints. Legge’s translation is in fact worth analysis from the cultural perspective for his missionary status, his translation purpose and the specific historical background of his translation.This thesis firstly reviews the theoretical researches on the translator’s status and subjectivity with a brief introduction to the shift in the cognition of the translator round the "cultural turn". Then it defines on a philosophical basis the subjectivity of the translator as the subject of translation and interprets its manifestation and function with Legge’s translation of The Works of Mencius as an example. Finally the influence of ideology, poetics and patronage on Legge and his translation is analyzed in the framework of the rewriting theory. It is pointed out in the conclusion that the translator’s subjectivity is a fact, and that it comprises both a subjective initiative aspect and a passivity which is mainly manipulated by ideology, poetics and patronage. A good translator needs to continuously coordinate the contraries of his/her subjectivity to maintain a balanced identity.