A Study Of Translator's Subjectivity In Wolf Totem From The Pespective Of George Steiner's Hermeneutic Motion

Wolf Totem,translated by Howard Goldblatt,has aroused widespread concern at home and aborad since it was officially published in 2008.Obviously,it is a successful case of Chinese literature “going out”.Translator's subjectivity is fully embodied in Wolf Totem.There are many studies on Wolf Totem,but they are seldom concerned with Steiner's hermeneutic motion.Therefore,this thesis,based on Steiner's hermeneutic motion,adopts comparative analysis and case analysis to explore how Goldblatt exerts his translator's subjectivity.Besides,Wolf Totem's success brings enlightenment to other translators.The major findings of the research are as follows.At the stage of trust,Goldblatt's appreciation of the source text and his linguistic and cultural competence impel him to select Lang Tuteng;at the stage of aggression,Goldblatt integrates his personal understanding and the socio-cultural awareness of the target language into the whole process of text interpretation.He flexibly adopts the translation methods,such as free translation,transliteration,omission and so on,to avoid the English readers' confusion caused by cultural differences;coming into the step of incorporation,Goldblatt tends to adopt the translation strategy,domestication.He represents the original meaning and form in the manner of being consistent with the norms of target language;finally,in order to keep the balance between the source text and the target text,Goldblatt makes necessary compensation for the loss of cultural and emotional information in a direct or indirect way.Besides,Wolf Totem's success brings enlightenment to other translators.Firstly,in text selection,the translator should take into consideration the preference of target language readers and market prospect of the original story in target culture;secondly,in the process of text interpretation and output,the translator is supposed to not only stay faithful to the source text,but also satisfy the target language readers' curiosity about exotic culture.