A Study Of Translator’s Subjectivity Reflected In Lin Yutang’s Translation Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

Combining the research on translator’s subjectivity abroad and at home and using Lin Yutang’s translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life as an example, the thesis aims at exploring the representation of translator’s subjectivity in the translating process and describing the elements affecting and restricting it.Translator is seen as the subject of translation. The author of the original text enjoys authority while the translator has a lower position compared with the author. In traditional translation theories, translator was invisible. The subject of translation has been neglected for such a long time that there is the phenomenon on the marginalizing of the translator’s cultural position. With the culture turn in translation study, the translation paradigm has diverted from a pure linguistic level to a cultural level. From then on, the study on the subject of translation has been gradually taken deep and seriously.The translator’s subjectivity refers to the translator’s subjective initiative represented in the translating activity and its essential characteristics are initiative, passivity and self-regard. Meanwhile, it is influenced by the original text and the target language. Elements from translator will also affect the choice, interpretation and translation of the original text. The thesis will take the above factors into account to explore the relationship between the translator and the text so as to better understand the whole translation process and to illustrate that the existence of the translator’s subjectivity is justified and inevitable.As an excellent writer and translator, he had a deep understanding of both Chinese culture and western culture and devoted himself to introducing the traditional Chinese culture to the west. Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiographical novel written by Shen Fu in the Qing Dynasty. Due to his love to the novel, Lin Yutang chose it as the text for translation. He adopted various translation strategies and brought his subjective initiative into full play. His excellent performance made this version become the most outstanding one.