On The Translator's Subjectivity And Creativeness

Cai Yi (1995: 7-10) points out that "the three core concepts in the foreign translation theories are the nature of translation, translatability and translation equivalence." In traditional translation studies, these concepts were described in terms of various perspectives such as philological, linguistic, communicative and socio-semiotic, but unfortunately no agreement has been achieved: each refused to give in to the others. This thesis starts from new philosophical perspectives—Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reader's Response and Reception Aesthetics—to prove that the subjectivity regarding the translator in literary translation can by no means be ignored in the present translation studies and that the translator should bring his creativeness into full play instead of being passively confined to the original author and text. Unlike general artistic creation, the translator's limited room for creation is due to the embarrassing position of 'one-servant-and-two-masters'. Such restrictions, on the one hand, explain why translation is fascinating; and on the other hand result in the negligence of the translator's subjectivity. The translator's subjectivity answers from a new angle why the nature of translation lies in the equal 'dialogue' between the author, the translator and the reader. The second focus in this thesis is on the translator's creativeness with a view to explaining the phenomena of un-translatability and in-equivalence in translation. The study of comparative literature tends to tolerate, confirm or even encourage the full play of the translator's 'creative treason'. The author re-defines this concept of creativeness from the perspective of regulating translation practices, which validates the translator's creativeness as an ingrained part of translation, and indicates that the translator should bring his subjectivity and creativeness into full play and at the same time keep close watch over the mainstream of 'translation norms' with his good command of the ST, so as to achieve a sort of balance between his creativeness and the 'macro' context and achieve satisfactory results in terms of literary, cultural and social effect.