On The Significance Of Translator's Subjectivity From Tpm Translation

Traditional translation theories view translation as "the replacement of textural material in one language (SL) by equivalent textural material in another language (TL)" (Catford, 1965). Deeming the traditional translation theories as authority, over a long period of time translation scholars have been confining their studies to linguistic analysis, which is far from being sufficient in terms of translation studies. Fortunately, modern translation theories such as Functionalist Approaches, Cannibalism Theory, Feminist Translation Theory, Deconstruction and postcolonial translation theory involve more factors than language in translation studies. Modern translation theories help the translator who has been in a rather low status in translation history to step out of the shade of the original author to become more visible than before. Meanwhile, an increasing number of translation scholars begin to center on research related to the conscious initiative of the translator in the process of translation and some of them hold that translator is the subject of translation. Obviously, modern translation theories are on the way to challenge the traditional translation theories and attempt to make contribution to the research on translator's subjectivity.In the light of the focus on the translator, the present thesis analyzes translator's conscious initiative in tourist publicity material translation and utilizes this as an empirical research to explore the development phases of translator's subjectivity studies. In the history of Chinese translation theories, some scholars have probed into the qualities and the creativity of the translator. In the West, some translation theories highlight the important role of the translator in the process of translation. However, despite thefoundation laid for the research on translator's subjectivity both at home and abroad, the present research on translator's subjectivity cannot be qualified as comprehensive or systematic. The thesis expounds the significance of research on translator's subjectivity and draws the conclusion that such research contributes a lot to translation studies especially to translation criticism and translator training.