Reflection And Expansion Of Manipulation Theory From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

The Journey to the West is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese literature,which contains rich cultural information.It also shows many vivid characters and a meandering road to India.The translation of The Journey to the West is a great challenge,and Anthony C.Yu's translation of this novel has successfully established his academic status in the field of sinology.Starting from translator's subjectivity,the author takes the first 25 chapters of Yu's English translation,The Journey to the West,as an example,and carries out certain reflection and expansion on manipulation theory in the dimension of translator's subjectivity.In Chapter 1,the author gives a brief introduction to the translator and the work,then summarizes and comments the academic research on the work in recent years,and finally points out the research purpose and significance of this thesis.In Chapter 2,firstly,the author combines the principal viewpoints of manipulation theory,makes a statement on the three main elements,and objectively evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of manipulation theory;secondly,the author introduces the connotation of translator's subjectivity,and refers to its definitions in various reference books to highlight the characteristics of translator's subjectivity;finally,the author explains the relationship between manipulation theory and translator's subjectivity,and expounds the reasons for causing a certain translation result include two possibilities: translator's subjectivity prevails,or translator's subjectivity selectively yields to manipulative factors.In Chapter 3,the author demonstrates from the three elements of translation's manipulation theory,including that the dominant religious ideology of localization of foreign religions tends to make translators use localized expressions in translation;the patron expects translators to achieve a balanced scheme of religious sense and literariness;and the dominant poetics in the 1990 s is mostly embodied in the literal translation,which expects translators to apply more literal translations.Through the demonstrations above,the author briefly states the influence of manipulation on translation practice from the positive side.At last,the author summarizes the content of this chapter.In Chapter 4,the author also conducts the analysis from the three elements of manipulation theory and uses counterexamples to explain that the translator can opt not to follow the manipulative factors on the basis of exerting his own subjectivity.For instance,when translating foreign religious terms,the translator does not follow the tendency of localizing foreign religions as advocated by the dominant religious ideology;when translating religious terms,the translator focuses more on the literariness and does not fully meet the expectations of the patron;moreover,the translator does not completely apply the literal translation in the translated version.Afterwards the author sums up that the manipulative factors interact with translator's subjectivity,and both of them are closely combined with each other.Under the impact of translator's subjectivity,manipulative factors sometimes become ineffective and cannot be guaranteed to work all the time.Accordingly,translator's subjectivity should be brought into manipulation theory,which means the manipulation and translator's subjectivity should be regarded as the two pillars of manipulation theory,to improve and expand manipulation theory.In the last chapter,the author summarizes the core viewpoints of the thesis,points out that translator's subjectivity should be concluded in manipulation theory,and emphasizes that translator's subjectivity is the supplement and improvement to manipulation theory.Manipulation theory neglects the influence of translator's subjectivity on translation,and translator's subjectivity has two sides: active and passive.Based on this,translators should objectively acknowledge this point and comprehensively consider the manipulation and translator's subjectivity in translation practice.In the conclusion,the author primarily illustrates there is still room for the study of translator's subjectivity,and the reason why the translator chooses to obey or disobey the manipulative factors remains to be further clarified.The author believes that through textual analysis,this thesis reveals the reflection and expansion space of translation's manipulation theory in the dimension of translator's subjectivity.A study like this can promote translator's deep thinking on translation behavior about the theoretical expansion,and push further development of manipulation theory on space of expansion.