On Translator’s Subjectivity In C-E Translation Of Science Fiction From The Perspective Of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion

Nowadays,countries around the world are actively exchanging cultures,especially through translation.The Chinese science fiction The Three-Body Trilogy is a typical example of Chinese culture going abroad.Its success overseas is partly due to the charm of the original work,and partly due to the role the translator Ken Liu played in the translation process.As an important part of translation activities,the translator’s status is becoming increasingly prominent,and the translator’s subjectivity is being paid more attention to by scholars.In view of this,this study takes George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion,which divides the translation process into four steps including “trust”,“aggression”,“incorporation” and“restitution”,as a guide to analyze how translator’s subjectivity are demonstrated in detail and to explore the translation methods and translation techniques the translator Ken Liu has used in C-E Translation of Science Fiction The Three-Body Trilogy Ⅲ · Death’s End in order to make it more acceptable to the readers.Through a detailed comparative analysis,this study finds that in the “trust” stage,translator Ken Liu’s trusts on the charm of the original work,on the author Liu Cixin’s writing competence,and on his own translation competence show his translator’s subjectivity.In the“aggression” stage,the translator’s subjectivity can be proved by the translator’s personal understanding as well as social and cultural awareness.Translation methods and techniques like derivation,equalization,omission and reconstruction are used in the former kind of aggression,while translation techniques such as substitution,hijacking and rewriting are used to show the subjectivity of translators in the awareness of traditional family roles,feminism and religion.In the “incorporation” stage,especially in the translation of idioms or other phrases with cultural images,the translator usually adopts the domestication,specifically using the translation methods of replacement of cultural images and paraphrase of cultural images;and foreignization is applied as well when the translator copes with zero equivalence through transliteration,zero translation and preserving cultural images,which is a manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity.In the “restitution” stage,the translator complements the missing information by annotation,addition and specification,highlighting the play of the translator’s subjectivity.This study hopes to bring some inspiration to other translators and theoretical researchers of C-E translation of science fiction.