Translator’s Subjectivity In The English Version Of Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out From Hermeneutics Perspective

In the study of translation theories, the translator’s subjectivity has undergone aprocess of from being ignored to being emphasized. The translator plays an indispensablerole in the translating process. However, in the traditional translation studies, thetranslator’s subjectivity is ignored for a long time. With the appearance of “cultural turn”in translation studies in the1970s and1980s, researchers started to change their thoughtsof translator’s subjectivity. Thus, the role and status of the translator is emphasized bymore and more translation scholars. The research of the translator’s subjectivity has thusbecome the focus in translation studies.As the first Chinese winner of Noble Prize of Literature, Mo Yan has enjoyedprestige both at home and abroad for his humorous, vivid description and strong localhistorical and cultural color. The novel of Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is MoYan’s Noble Prize-winning works. It completely demonstrates Mo Yan’s writing skill andstyle, which is also the main reason why he won the noble prize. The novel Life andDeath Are Wearing Me Out describes the history of Chinese countryside in fifty yearsfrom the year of1950to2000. Based on the topic of soil, Mo Yan explains therelationship between the soil and peasants. Furthermore, according to the images ofsubsequent reincarnations, Mo Yan presents the life of Chinese peasants and theirindomitable and optimistic spirit since the foundation of New China. Many scholars havedone different research and have given some comments on Mo Yan’s works form variousperspectives. But only a few studies on the English version can be found and the studiesanalyzed from the perspective of translation theory are rare. Till now, no research is done from hermeneutics. This article attempts to make a detailed analysis of the English novelLife and Death Are Wearing Me Out from the perspective of hermeneutics. The purposeof this thesis is to enrich the study of hermeneutics theory and present the decisive role ofthe translator’s subjectivity in the process of translation.As one of the important theories of analyzing the translator’s subjectivity,hermeneutics widen people’s horizon about the translator, as well as provides a newperspective for the study of the translator’s subjectivity and broadens the field oftranslation study. This thesis studies the manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity inthe English version of Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out from theperspective of hermeneutics, especially from Steiner’s hermeneutics translation theory. Itincludes trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation, which demonstrates that thetranslator’s subjectivity plays an indispensable role in the translation activity. The firststep is trust, which means the translator thinks the original text is worth translating andthe translator trusts that the original text means something. The next one after trust isaggression. The translator enters the original text and tries to interpret and understand theoriginal text. The third step is incorporation, which refers that the translator has theintention of putting some new elements into the target language. The fourth step iscompensation. It means that the translator tries to acquire a balance of meaning by tryingto be faithful and free simultaneously.This thesis analyzes the translator’s subjectivity by using hermeneutics from chapterfour to chapter seven, corresponding to the four-step translation theory. Chapter four isthe manifestation of the translator’s trust reflected in Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out,including two parts. The first part demonstrates the translator’s choice and evaluation ofthe original text. The second part analyzes the translator’s linguistic and culturalcompetence. Chapter five is the manifestation of the translator’s aggression reflected inLife and Death Are Wearing Me Out. It analyzes the translator’s subjectivity from theaggression of linguistic and cultural aspects. Chapter six is the manifestation of thetranslator’s incorporation reflected in Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, whichconsists of two parts: the translation of meaning and the translation of form. Chapter seven is the manifestation of the translator’s compensation reflected in Life and DeathAre Wearing Me Out. It is analyzed from two aspects: direct compensation and indirectcompensation.Finally, according to the detailed analysis, conclusions are given: In the process oftranslation, the translator’s subjectivity is inevitable. Target text does not have the certainversion. Translation is not the process of repeating the meaning of the original text. It is acreative activity, with the elements of translator’s subjectivity all the time. However, itdoes not mean the translator can do whatever he or she wants, but within a certain degree.A translator should be subject to certain restrictions in the process of translation whileenjoying great freedom. A good translator should try to acquire the balance between thesubjectivity and self-restraint.