On The Translator’s Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics

Lao She, whose original name is Shu Qingchun, is a renowned Chinese novelist, writer and playwright. He produced many classic works, such as Rickshaw Boy, Four Generations under One Roof, Dragon Beard Ditch, Teahouse, etc. His works are popular at home and abroad because of his humorous and witty words. Teahouse is regarded as the peak of Lao She’s dramatic career. Through the depiction of the changes of the teahouse and various characters, the play reflects the Chinese society in the50years from the late Qing Dynasty to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and exposes profound contradictions between common people and the old society. The play is famous for "One line depicts one role" and has received high acclaim both at home and abroad. Of course, its great popularity can’t be achieved without the excellent translation by Ying Ruocheng and John Howard-Gibbon.Translators were placed in the marginalized position in traditional translation theories. Since the "cultural turn" in the1970s, the role of translators has been greatly promoted, and the subjectivity of the translator has become a heated topic in translation studies. A lot of scholars have made inspiring studies on this issue by using theories like the skopos theory, polysystem theory and deconstruction theory. Their studies are illuminating but still there exist some limitations. As we know, any translation starts from understanding, and translated works are the products of understanding original texts. So "understanding" is an important concept in translation studies. Philosophical hermeneutics takes understanding as its core. It is a theory concerned with understanding and interpreting, in which the key concepts namely prejudices, historicity of understanding and fusion of horizons have intrinsic relationship with the subject of translation.Understanding occurs when the horizon of the past and the horizon of the present fuse. In this process, the translator will inevitably input his attitude, experience, belief, preference, cultural characteristics and aesthetic values, which makes cultural filtration unavoidable. In this thesis, the author chooses historicity of understanding and cultural filtration to probe into the English versions of Teahouse. By focusing on case studies from different angles, the author tries to find out how the two translators are influenced by the two factors and employ different translating techniques. The thesis is to draw the conclusion that the translator’s subjectivity has been displayed in the two versions of Teahouse. The author hopes the findings of the thesis will bring some inspirations to further research, and more scholars will pay attention to Lao She’s work Teahouse.