A Study Of Inter-subjectivity In Literary Translation

In recent years, with the in-depth study on translation subjects and subjectivity of translator,the issue of inter-subjectivity in translation has aroused a wide concern. The inter-subjectivity intranslation study suggests that translation is a process of negotiation, communication anddialogue which involves various participants, such as the source text author (STA), thetranslator, the target text reader (TTR) and the sponsor. Those participants take their initiativerespectively in the translation activities on the basis of mutual equality and interaction. In simpleterms, the inter-subjectivity in translation is the study of the internal relations among translationsubjects during the process of translation.As one of the most talented and brilliant bilingual writers of the20thcentury in China,Eileen Chang has received an indisputable reputation in the literary field. Nevertheless, theacademic studies on Eileen Chang are often confined to the field of literature, while studies onher translated works, especially her self-translated works, fail to gain due attention. As a matterof fact, compared with traditional translators, those translators who translate their own works, orwe can also say self translators, can better embody the interrelationships among different kindsof translation subjects during the process of translation, since they are the ones who have thebest understandings of the source text. Therefore, a closer study on those self-translated works isquite significant, which will contribute to the further development of translation studies.This thesis attempts to explore the translator’s inter-subjective relations with the STA, theTTR and the sponsor within the theoretical framework of inter-subjectivity in translation via acase study of Eileen Chang’s self-translated work The Golden Cangue. It aims to prove thatinter-subjectivity is an effective guideline for translation studies. The communication and cooperation among subjects involving in the process of translation can help translator to take apositive initiative so as to guarantee the smooth proceedings of translation activities.