On The Translator’s Subjectivity In The Translation Of Children’s Literature From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

Children’s literature plays an important role in providing children with knowledge and forming their characters. Based on special characteristics of children readers, the full play of the translator’s subjectivity contributes to bridging the distance between the source text and children readers. Therefore, it is necessary to exert the translator’s subjectivity in the translation of children’s literature. The Wind in the Willows is a classic fairy tale written by Kenneth Grahame, a British writer, and is honored as one of the one hundred representative books of the20th century.Drawing on the hermeneutics, George Steiner puts forward his hermeneutic Fourfold Translation Motion Theory (FTMT), which is the theoretical framework of this thesis. The thesis attempts to embody the translator’s subjectivity into Steiner’s four steps in a research of three Chinese versions of The Wind in the Willows translated by Yang Jingyuan, Ren Rongrong and Zhang Chiheng. The thesis aims to examine how the translator’s subjectivity influences the translation process, and to affirm the significance of the translator’s subjectivity in the translation of children’s literature.According to Steiner, the hermeneutic motion is fourfold, namely "trust","aggression","incorporation" and "restitution". Steiner holds that any translation activity starts from the translator’s "trust", which originates from the translator’s choices, evaluations of the original text and his/her linguistic competence and so on. This thesis, by analyzing the first step of translation from the above mentioned three aspects, points out that the translator’s trust on The Wind in the Willows is objective. The second step is the "aggression" of the translator, which is incursive and extractive. Illustrations are given to demonstrate how the cultural awareness and language habits of the three translators influence the "aggression" process."Incorporation" is the third step and is the output period of translation, in which the translator adopts different translation strategies to interpret the original text when faced with different languages and cultures. In this thesis, the subjectivity of the three translators is illustrated on the incorporation of meaning and form. The last step is "restitution", which plays an important role in rebuilding the balance between the original text and the target text. The three translators employ different methods to make appropriate restitution. Due to the responsible restitution of the three translators, their subjectivity manifests to the greatest extent.Through a comparative analysis of three Chinese versions of The Wind in the Willows, this thesis works out that the translation of children’s literature is the outcome of the translator’s subjectivity, which plays a vital role in the diversity of translations. The thesis, with the combination of theory and practice, embodies the translator’s subjectivity in translating children’s literature and examines how the translator’s subjectivity influences his/her translation, which is an innovative attempt on the Chinese versions of The Wind in the Willows, and offers a new perspective to the studies on the translation of children’s literature.