A Tenative Study Of The Translator’s Subjectivity In Two Chinese Versions Of The Secret Garden

"Culture turn" shed new light on the literal translation and broaden people’s horizon with an additional dimension. What’ more, it attaches much more importance to the role of translator in translation than ever, so translator’s subjectivity has become the growing concern of scholars. By combining George’ Steiner’s Fourfold Translation Theory with translator’s subjectivity, the thesis is aiming at exploring how the translator makes full use of his subjectivity in the different stages in practical translation and how translator’s subjectivity affects the translated works.In order to make a more meaningful research and draw a sound conclusion, the thesis chooses two Chinese translated versions of The Secret Garden as a study case to reveal the embodiment of Li and Xu’s subjectivities in their versions.After reviewing the relevant study papers made by scholars at home and abroad, the thesis will exploit the connections between George Steiner’s Four Translation Motion Theory and translator’s subjectivity. It reveals further, within the framework of the FTMT, the translator’s subjectivities are displayed in each step of the four motions--"trust","aggression","incorporation" and "compensation". With abundant illustrations, the thesis analyzes two Chinese translated versions of The Secret Garden to reveal how Li Wenjun, Xu Hong and Wang Ying exert their subjectivities to reproduce their ideal versions. In the stage of choice, the translators makes up their minds with their consideration of the value of the original works and the purpose of their translation; in the aggression stage, their understandings invade the religion and culture of the original text as well as ecological notion involved in the original works; in the stage of incorporation, translators incorporate what they comprehend in the second stage into their individual target works by resorting to some appropriate translation strategies from perspects of linguistic and culture; in the end, translators deploy their subjectivities to regain the balance between target and original works with annotation and direct information supplement.After a further research, the thesis finds that translator’s subjectivities are exerted in different aspects of translation and greatly influences the style and value of translated version. So translators should better bear the point in his mind to exert his subjectivity appropriately for better translated works.