On Translator’s Subjectivity In Lin Yutang’s Translation Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji In The Light Of George Steiner’s Fourfold Translation Motion

As the most dynamic factor in translation process, the translator?s significance is undoubtedly conceivable. Whether in the choice and comprehension of the original text, or in the expression and explanation of the target language, translators are displaying their subjectivity inevitably. However, translators have been in the position of “invisible man” and “servant”, resulting from the ignorance of the translation field during quite a long time in the past years. Thanks to the “cultural turn” in the 1970 s, more and more scholars in our country and abroad began to draw attention on the study of translators? subjectivity, by this, translators? status has been changed and improved a lot.There is a natural connection between hermeneutics and translation. The hermeneutic theorists such as Heidegger and Gadamer broadened the horizons for translation studies and laid a theoretical foundation for the researches in translators? subjectivity. And then George Steiner applied philosophical hermeneutics to the translation field and put forward the hermeneutic fourfold translation motion, respectively, trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation, and every motion is permeated by the exertion of translator?s subjectivity.This thesis takes George Steiner?s hermeneutic fourfold translation motion as the theoretical basis, and chooses Lin Yutang?s translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji as a case study, and focuses on how the translator?s subjectivity embodied in the four motions by the exemplification. During the research process, the translation strategies adopted by the translator in the incorporation period will also be analyzed. Through this study, it is not hard to find that the translator?s subjectivity is well embodied in Lin?s translation of FSLJ in the light of the hermeneutic fourfold translation motion. Meanwhile, the domestication and foreignization translation strategies are adopted by the translator in the incorporation of meaning in the original text. This thesis is a reproduction and playback of the improvement of the position of translators? subjectivity from the “invisible man” to the independent individual, and translators? subjectivity should be sufficiently respected. Besides, some factors such as the social environment, the personal life experience and the translator?s cross-cultural awareness will have more or less impacts on the displaying of translator?s subjectivity. As a whole, at the same time of respecting and recognizing the importance of translators? subjectivity, people cannot blindly overstate the subjectivity of translators, instead, translators should display their creativity and initiative properly on the basis of the source text, the source author, the original text culture and the target language culture, in order to create the best translation works.