On The Translator’s Subjectivity: A Study Of The Translation Of Cultural Elements In Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out

In 1970 s, the “cultural turn” drew academic circle’s attention to translators and translator’s subjectivity, initiative and creativity. And translation studies pay more attention to translator’s comprehensive consideration during the translation process. Especially, the translator’s subjectivity is more important in literary translation. The novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out is one of Mo Yan’s most important works winning Nobel Prize. And this novel’s translation is popular in American for its fluent reading and exotic attraction. It is necessary and significant for scholars to study how Howard Goldblatt achieves the translation and what the key factors in the successful translation are.This thesis, taking translator’s subjectivity as theoretical frame, starting with cultural elements, deeply studies the translation of cultural elements in Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, and analyzes the positive function and concrete performance of translator’s subjectivity in translation. The thesis analyzes the influencing factors in translator’s subjectivity during the translation process from the perspective of initiative and passivity. The internal influencing factor is also the initiative of translator’s subjectivity, including translator’s translation purpose, translator’s bilingual and bicultural competence and consciousness, and translator’s reader awareness. The three internal factors influence the quality of translation in different translation processes: the choice of original text, understanding and expression. The external factors, restricting translator from the ideology, poetics and patron, are the passivity of translator’s subjectivity, which influences translation’s publishing and dissemination. The author analyzes the translator’s subjectivity dialectically from the perspective of both initiative and passivity and concludes that the translator’s subjectivity not only sets translators free but also adds restrictions on them. And then the author analyzes Howard Goldblatt’s translation achievements and enlightenment one by one according to the translation processes: choice of text, understanding, expression and publishing. The thesis is a great enlightenment for translators.