A Study Of The Translator's Subjective Creativity From The Perspective Of Cultural Cognition

The research of the translator's subjectivity started from 1980 s or 1990 s,and it has gained much attention with fruitful research results in terms of research perspectives and focuses.The translator's subjectivity,originating from the philosophical concept—subjectivity,was studied either on the philosophical level or on the very specific level of translation strategies or methods.Both levels reveal that these researches mainly focus on the translator's position(Xu Jun,2003;Zha Mingjian,Tian Yu,2003)or his role's shift from invisible to visible and thus the study of translators is basically under the static observation.Recently some scholars have begun to emphasize the nature of translation and hold the belief that translation itself is creative and the creativity of translation gained some recognition(Yu Guangzhong,2014;Guo Jianzhong,2014).Another term,creative treason,faced with wrong understanding or argument after the introduction into translation studies(Xie Tianzhen,2012),has undergone the process of the misunderstanding between the nature of translation and the wrong use as translation methods.These three concepts are usually wrongly used and their boundaries are often blurred.Based on the present research situation,the concept of the translator's subjective creativity is put forward in the study.The concept itself not only focuses on the translator's subjectivity,but more importantly the creativity of the translator's subjectivity.The study of the translator's subjective creativity puts particular emphasis on the translator's dynamic behaviors,and especially the translator' cultural cognition participating into the translating process,thus enriches the theoretical contents for translation studies and add necessary conceptual supplements.The realization of the translator's subjective creativity relies on the translator's consistent cultural cognition,which is under dynamic framework and interactive relationship with other relevant elements during the translating process.The emphasis of the translator's subjective creativity shows the process of the study of translator's subjectivity from the servant-position to the master-position or from the invisible role to the visible one.With this belief as the basis,the study holds the idea that creativity is the core feature and the significant presentation of the translator's subjectivity.The study constructs cultural cognition as the study perspective under the basis of the research results in terms of cognitive linguistics,interpretive cultural studies,cultural translation studies,and cognitive translation studies.In order to prove the realization of the translator's subjective creativity under such a perspective,the study aims to answer the following research questions.1.What is the translator's subjective creativity? What features does it have?2.What is the theoretical perspective of the translator's subjective creativity? And why is the translator's subjective creativity studied under such a perspective?3.How is the translator's subjective creativity realized under the perspective of cultural cognition during the translation process,especially in the literary translation process?The study puts forward the translator's subjective creativity based on the research results of the translator's subjectivity,creativity of translation,and creative treason under the perspective of cultural cognition with cognitive linguistics,interpretive cultural studies,cultural translation studies and cognitive translation studies as theoretical bases.The study selects 5 representative ones from Howard Goldblatt's 63 translated works,namely,The Tales of Hulan River(two versions),Ma Bo'le's Second Life(full edition),Big Breasts and Wide Hips,and The Moon Opera.Through qualitative and descriptive translation studies including interview data analysis of the translators and contrastive analysis of the 5 translated works,the study is a production-oriented research aiming at proving the realization and operation of translator's subjective creativity during literary translation under the perspective of cultural cognition.The main research ideas are as follows:1.The translator's subjective creativity,as one of the aspects of the translator's subjectivity,emphasizes the study of creativity.It is a dynamic and processive study of the translator's subjectivity.The translator's subjective creativity is a result of the translator's cultural cognition into the process of literary translation.The concept of the translator's subjective creativity is not a negative expression of the translator's subjectivity but an extending and enriching research with the emphasis of creativity as its core element.The research of the translator's subjectivity is a relatively static observation in a philosophical level and a positive basis of the research of the translator's subjective creativity.The study of the translator's subjective creativity,on the contrary,is a dynamic research focusing on the creativity itself,the most outstanding presentation form of a translator as a subject when he is in the translating process.The study of the translator's subjective creativity is a further exploration or a deep investigation into the translator's position.2.The translator's subjective creativity must be studied under a certain theoretical perspective.Translation is usually acknowledged as a cross-cultural communicative activity based on human experience.Through the research basis of cognitive linguistics,interpretive cultural studies,cultural translation studies and cognitive translation studies,this study builds up a theoretical perspective of cultural cognition.Under such a perspective,the study holds the idea that translation is a cultural cognitive activity.More than that,the study believes that the realization of the translator's subjective creativity relies on the translator's cultural cognition participating into the translating process.Based on Wang Yin's cognitive translation perspective(2007),and under the cultural cognitive perspective,the study introduces four analytical dimensions,namely,the cultural experience of translation,creative cognition of translation,multi-interaction of translation and textual circulation of translation.The study aims at proving the realization and the operation process of the translator's subjective creativity based on these four dimensions.3.Based on the linguistic data selected from 5 representative translated works and quite a lot of paratexts(Translator's Notes or Prefaces included),the study aims to prove the realization of the translator's subjective creativity according to the four analytical dimensions and observe them in the four different processes respectively.These processes include the translator's experiencing process as a subject,translator's cognitive process with creativity,multi-interactive process of translation,textual circulation process of translation.The study shows the following results: First,the translators' subjective creativity is the result of the translator's experiencing process as a subject,and the must-be happening of translator's cultural cognition when the translator reads the original works and is responsible for the readers world at the same time.This translator's experiencing process as a subject is a linguistic experiencing process,but rather a cultural cognitive process.Second,the translator's subjective creativity emphasizes the behavior of creativity.During the literary translation process,it manifests a cognitive behavior with creativity.The translator's subjective creativity and creative treason are different.The former one refers to the subjective and active behavior of translator,especially the creative behavior which is a kind of inner impetus,while the later one emphasizes the objective outwardness and must-be happening during the process of translation or literature appreciation.Thirdly,the realization of the translator's subjective creativity depends on the interaction between translators and authors,the original works,translators themselves,readers,editors and publishing houses or patrons etc.,and their relationship is multi-dimensional and spatial interaction.At last,the realization of the translator's subjective creativity is accomplished during the textual circulation,which include in-text circulation and out-text circulation.The main innovative points of the study are as follows.First,the concept of the translator subjective creativity is put forward for the first time,and thus brings the studies of the translator's subjectivity into a dynamic and processive research space with further exploration and extension.Second,based on the research results of cognitive linguistics,interpretive cultural studies,cultural translation studies,cognitive translation studies,the study teases out a perspective of cultural cognition,which works as a theoretical framework for the study.Meanwhile,the study points out that cultural cognition is the source of the realization of the translator's subjective creativity,and translator's cultural cognition results in the presentation form and the realization process of the translator's subjective creativity.Thirdly,the innovation of the research significance includes the following aspects.The innovation in the theoretical level comes first.The study enriches the research of the translator's subjectivity,which will be more dynamic,multi-dimensional,and comprehensive.With cultural cognition as the study perspective,the study of the translator's subjective creativity will be put into more systematic and very brand-new theoretical framework.The innovation in the practical level is obvious as well.Goldblatt's translated works are a good example of translator's subjective creativity,and therefore they serve quite a positive and useful role in providing a model for the translation practice.The study certainly has its limits.The research of the translator's subjective creativity is undergoing the developing process.Though the translator's subjective creativity puts a new and fresh theoretical blood or a perspective addition into the traditional translation studies,the proving process still needs improvement,and the theoretical framework deserves more construction.In conclusion,the study puts forward the concept of the translator's subjective creativity,and originates the realization process of the translator's subjective creativity with the production-oriented study as research method.Under the theoretical perspective of cultural cognition,the study introduces four analytical dimensions,which demonstrate four realization processes by one to one correspondence,hoping that the study enriches the researches of the translator's subjectivity and other related translation theory studies.