On Translator's Subjectivity From George Steiner's Hermeneutic Motion Theory

Translator plays an important role in translation activities for translator's bilingual competence,choice of translation strategies and comprehension for source language context are vital elements determining whether the translator renders the central meaning and spirit of source language.However,the traditional translation studies focus on how to transform source language into target language faithfully,and emphasize the equivalence between source language and target language.As the center and subject of translation activities,translator has been placed in a marginalized position for a long time.Since the great change of culture turn on translation study in 1970s,the translator's subjectivity gradually becomes a hot topic for translation researches.George Steiner's fourfold hermeneutic motion theory divides the translation activity into four steps:trust,aggression,incorporation and compensation,and focuses on how the translator plays his or her subjectivity in the translation process,which provides a new perspective for researches on translator's subjectivity.As one of the four famous comedies of William Shakespeare,As You Like It is rich of philosophy and flowery parallel sentences.It is challenging for the translator to translate the drama for the translator needs to render the spirit of source language and take into account the stage performance effect,which fully embodies the translator's subjectivity and creativity.Zhu Shenghao is the forerunner of the translation of Shakespeare's plays,and with his solid foundation of classical Chinese and English,he renders the aesthetic and spirit of Shakespeare's plays.His translation version is popular with Chinese readers.Therefore,this thesis takes Zhu Shenghao's translation version of As You Like It as the case for research on translator's subjectivity.This thesis studies the translator's subjectivity from George Steiner's hermeneutic motion theory with the case study of Zhu Shenghao's translation of As You like It.This thesis firstly gives a detailed introduction of the research background,and the framework of George Steiner's fourfold hermeneutic motion.The author selects and classifies typical sentences pursuant to characteristics of fourfold hermeneutic motion theory and makes detailed quantitative analysis of translation examples,thus displaying Zhu Shenghao's translator subjectivity in the translation of As You Like It.George Steiner thinks that any translation activity starts with the translator's trust for source language text,that is,the translator insists that the source language text is meaningful and worthy to be translated.The author of this thesis makes an analysis of translation examples from two factors:translator's evaluation on the source language text and translator's cultural and linguistic competence and finds that Zhu Shenghao selects Shakespeare's works as the translated text out of his ardent love for Shakespeare's plays and his outstanding bilingual competence.As the second step of the translation activity,the aggression is an unavoidable act.When the translator understands source language text,he or she is unconsciously influenced by his or her native language culture and thinking mode,which makes the translated text easier to be accepted by target language readers.Based on the analysis on Zhu Shenghao's translation examples of culture-loaded terms and appellation,this thesis presents the translator's aggression for source language text out of cultural awareness.This thesis displays the translator's aggression for source language text out of religion awareness by analyzing Zhu Shenghao 's translation examples of religion-related words.George Steiner classifies the incorporation act into the incorporation of form and that of meaning.The author of this thesis illustrates the translator's incorporation of form by making analysis on Zhu Shenghao's translation method of four-character and translating phrases into clauses in the comedy As You Like It and presents the translator's incorporation of meaning by analyzing Zhu Shenghao 's translation method of following the original syntactic order and reframing sentence structure.The compensation is an indispensable act in the translation process and the author makes analysis on Zhu Shenghao's translation method of semantic extension,amplification and annotation to manifest the translator's subjectivity in the compensation act.With the detailed analysis on how the translator's subjectivity is manifested in the trust,aggression,incorporation,and compensation act,the author deepens her comprehension for the translator's subjectivity.Besides,the author makes analysis on Zhu Shenghao's translation strategies and methods in the comedy As You Like It to improve her capability of translation criticism.