A Study On Translator’s Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics Theory

Translators have long been marginalized in traditional translation studies,and their role and status have not been paid much attention to.With the “cultural turn” of translation studies,the study of translator’s subjectivity has received due attention and gradually goes deeper.Hermeneutics is a significant perspective in the study of translator’s subjectivity.Based on the Fourfold Translation Motion Theory proposed by George Steiner,this thesis attempts to analyze the abstract concept of the translator’s subjectivity from the four steps of “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and “compensation”.The Kite Runner is the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini,which quickly occupied the bestseller lists in the United States once it was released.The translated version which is published in the mainland of China is translated by Li Jihong.After the Chinese version of The Kite Runner entered the Chinese market,it quickly becomes the best-selling book and receives a sea of favorable comments.There are many studies on The Kite Runner,among which identity has always been a hot topic.Khaled Hosseini endows the protagonist Amir with his dual identity dilemma and describes the protagonist’s pursuit and construction of identity based on the clue of the protagonist’s mental journey.The identity construction of the protagonist Amir is a critical clue to understanding the full text both in the original and in the translated version.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the representation of Amir’s identity construction process in The Kite Runner and takes George Steiner’s Fourfold Translation Motion Theory as the theoretical guidance to explore the role and significance of translator’s subjectivity in the representation of Amir’s identity construction process.First of all,this thesis ensures the translator’s trust in The Kite Runner from the translator’s description of the original work in the interviews.Secondly,based on whether the identity construction is reproduced and how to be reproduced in the translated version,this thesis explores the role of translator’s subjectivity in the whole process of representation and its influence on the representation of the identity construction process,which is mainly reflected in the translation step of “aggression”,“incorporation” and “compensation”.Finally,this thesis draws the following conclusions: The translator completely reproduces the identity construction process of the protagonist Amir in the translation.In the process of reproducing identity construction,the translator manifests his subjectivity to a large extent.The translator first invades the original text because of the cultural awareness and personal understanding,and then absorbs the content and form of the original text mainly through the strategy of domestication,and finally compensates for the information deficiency caused by the first three steps by means of adding footnotes and amplification.The exertion of translator’s subjectivity makes the protagonist’s identity characteristics more distinct in each stage,which strengthens the representation of the protagonist’s identity to a certain extent.This study hopes to provide some new insights into the studies on translator’s subjectivity and identity in The Kite Runner.