The Study Of Translator’s Subjectivity In Dent-youngs’ The Marshes Of Mount Liang From Steiner’s Hermeneutics Motion

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 more influenceon the translation effect. With the cultural turn in translation studies in the1970s, thesubjectivity of the translator in translation process gradually being recognized and valued byresearchers. Scholars began to study translator’s subjectivity from a variety of brand newperspectives, of which the Hermeneutics theory is one of the most frequently used theories inthis research.With the cultural turn, contemporary translation theories like Hermeneutics, feministtranslation theory and deconstructionist translation theory, hold that no matter how dedicatethe translator try to hide himself, to make himself invisible, his world outlook, outlook onlife,values,personalities and taste will inevitably influence his translation. In other words, thetranslator does exhibits subjectivity in translation. Subjectivity is philosophy concept,referring to the alienation of the subject’s essential power through its objective activity. Thetranslator’s subjectivity refers to the subjective initiative reflected in the translation activityby the translator on the precondition that he/she must respect the translation object in order torealize the translation purpose. To be an excellent translator, he/she must seek balancebetween subjectivity and self-restraint.The study intends to make study on the translator’s subjectivity reflected throughout thetranslation practice of Shui Hu Zhuan within the framework of Hermeneutics. Hermeneuticsis a subject of understanding and interpreting meanings. Different from the study on the staticcomparison between the original and target text, Hermeneutic study focuses on the dynamicstudy by putting the target text in the social and historical circumstances. At the same time,the translator’s subjectivity emerges. Hermeneutics translation studies provide new insights,expand the scope of translation studies and deepen people’s understanding of the translator’simportance. In the After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. Steiner put forward hisfour-step theory which provides a new theoretical basis and research method for the study oftranslator’s subjectivity in translation research.Steiner’s Hermeneutics Motion has four steps, which are trust, invasion, incorporationand compensation. In this dissertation, the author adopts Steiner’s Hermeneutics Motion asthe supporting theory and uses the four steps to analyze Dent-Youngs’ translation version ofShui Hu Zhuan: The Marshes of Mount Liang. Through analyzing and researching translator’s different understanding of the source language due to the difference of culture, historybackground and ideology, the author tries to find out how the translator compensate the lossof original meaning caused by different means of interpretation in translation process. At last,the author systematically demonstrates the translators’ subjectivity and creativity intranslating Shui Hu Zhuan.Finally, based on the analysis of translator’s subjectivity in The Marshes of Mount Liang,the author believes that a successful translation of Shui Hu Zhuan has a high request for thetranslator. First of all, the translator must have a correct and positive translation motive.Second, the translator must have solid language abilities in both Chinese and English andhe/she must be familiar with Chinese and western culture. At the same time, excellenttranslation skills are required. Finally, the translator must have profound research and uniqueunderstanding in Shui Hu Zhuan. In addition, the author put forwards her own understandingin translating Shui Hu Zhuan. In view of the particularity in translating Chinese classics,translators can draw lessons from other Chinese scholars to attach annotations in translatingShui Hu Zhuan. By attaching detailed annotation, translator could accurately reproduce thebeauty of the classic works on the basis of faithfulness. The author hopes this study canbroaden the research perspective of the translation of Shui Hu Zhuan and provide beneficialenlightenment for the research on the translation of Chinese classic literature works.