The Manifestation Of Translator’s Subjectivity As Revealed In The Translated The Joy Luck Club In Light Of George Steiner’s Fourfold Motion Theory

Despite the fact that translators are the center and subject of the translation activity, the position of them are marginalized in the long history of the development of translation theory. The cultural turn in the western translation research in the 1970 s brings translation into the field of cultural research and activate the research on the target language and culture. The translator’s subjectivity was brought into light step by step and became an vital subject of translation research.The thesis makes a tentative endeavor in analyzing the abstract concept of the translator’s subjectivity through the four moves, namely “trust”, “aggression”, “incorporation” and “restitution” in the research of the Chinese version of The Joy Luck Club, basing on George Steiner’s fourfold translation motion theory. The research aims at obtaining scientific awareness on how the translator’s subjectivity exerts influence on the translated version, thereby affirming the significance of the translator’s subjectivity in translation and contributing to the translation study of the best-seller The Joy Luck Club.The thesis first presents a comprehensive review of the literature on the study of the translator’s subjectivity home and abroad after the “cultural turn”. Then it lays the theoretical foundation of the study, focusing on the four moves of George Steiner’s hermeneutic motion as well as its application to the study on translator’s subjectivity. Later, the thesis analyses Cheng Naishan’s subjectivity macroscopically, introducing her life experience, writing style as well as her intention of translation. Then, the thesis comes to the microscopic analysis. The “trust” comes from Cheng’s appreciation of the source text, her cultural and linguistic competence as well as her experience. The second move “aggression” is embodied in her translation of the title as well as the scenery description. The feminist writing and her dialect-featured expression represent her “incorporation” in the translated text. Lastly, the writer finds out that Cheng fails to restitute for the words in italics, as well as the connotative meaning of name and proposes some improvement accordingly.On the whole, after detailed analysis it is concluded that George Steiner’s fourfold translation motion offers us an objective approach to the study of translator’s subjectivity, hence it is quite effective and instructive.