A Comparative Study Of Translator’s Subjectivity In The Two English Versions Of Shui Hu Zhuan-from A Hermeneutic Perspective

The translator plays an important role in the process of translation. In the translationprocess, the translator’s subjectivity deals with the choice of the text and materials, themotives of translator and the style of translation. However, the translator’s subjectivity isoften ignored in the traditional translation studies, while attention is mostly paid to thelinguistic competence and the translation techniques which are thought to be moreinfluence on the translation effect. Recently, especially since the “cultural turn”, peoplebegan to change their concepts of subjectivity, and the translator’s subjectivity has becomethe focus of scholars and the related studies.Traditional translation theories believe that the author is authoritative while thetranslator is only subordinate. With the cultural turn in translation studies, contemporarytranslation theories like hermeneutics, feminist translation theory and deconstructionisttranslation theory, hold that no matter how dedicate the translator may try to hide himself,to make himself invisible, his world outlook, outlook on life, values, personalities and tastewill inevitably influence his translation. In other words, the translator does exhibitssubjectivity in translation. Subjectivity is philosophy concept, referring to the alienation ofthe subject’s essential power through its objective activity. The translator’s subjectivityrefers to the subjective initiative reflected in the translation activity by the translator on theprecondition that he must respect the translation object in order to realize the translationpurpose. To be a excellent translator, he must seek balance between subjectivity andself-restraint.Hermeneutics focuses on people’s understanding and interpretation of the text, andtranslation activity involves the understanding and interpretation too. Different from the study on the static comparison between the original and target text, hermeneutic studyfocus on the dynamic study by putting the target text in the social and historicalcircumstances. At the same time, the translator’s subjectivity emerges. Hermeneuticstranslation studies provide new insights, expand the scope of translation studies and deepenpeople’s understanding of the translator’s importance. Influenced by traditional Chinesepoetics and aesthetics, people usually make intuitive judgments, through subjective andimpressionistic standard, rather than objective and systematic analysis of translation. Mosttranslation judgments seem to remain in linguistic level. The study intends to make studyon the translators’ subjectivity reflected throughout the translation practice of Shui HuZhuan within the framework of hermeneutics.The thesis consists of five Chapters. Chapter One gives an introduction. It introducesthe background of the original text, the purpose and questions, the methodology and itemscollection, the significance of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review, which consists oftwo parts. The first part introduces the previous researches upon Shui Hu Zhuan. Thesecond part introduces researches upon translator’s subjectivity. Chapter Three is theframework of the adopted theories. It gives a general introduction to Hermeneutics andintroduces four major concepts of Hermeneutics. Chapter Four is the principal part of thethesis, which is intended to explore in detail how the translator’s subjectivity is manifestedin the translation process of the work in the perspective of hermeneutics. Chapter Five isthe conclusion of the paper. Finally, conclusions are given.The significance of the thesis is that subjectivity plays an vital role in the research oftranslation criticism and literature translation. In translation process, the translator must besubject to certain principles in his conduct while enjoy great freedom. And a goodtranslator must seek balance between subjectivity and self-restraint. On the whole, thetranslators of Shui Hu Zhuan achieve the balance basically.