On The Subjectivity Of The Translator

Translation is a complicated communicative activity. The translator plays the decisive and irreplaceable role in it. It is the translator who introduces the elites of foreign literature into his own culture and fellow citizens. However, the translator's identity and role as a creative subject is not recognized for a long time in translation study. On the contrary, they are regarded as the faithful servant of the author. Their creative endeavor is ignored, even denied. Nowadays, with the translation study deepening, the translator's status as the center subject of translation process is widely acknowledged, and the translator has moved from behind the curtain to the forefront and has become a visible subject dominating the translation process. This thesis concerns studying the status and role of the translator and the connotation of its subjectivity, and includes six parts. It starts with an introduction of the background, meaning and present research situation of the topic and put forward the problem that the thesis concerns in the chapter one. The paper then makes a review of the traditionally prejudiced evaluation on the function of the translator, and discusses its theoretical and cultural factors. Basing on these analyses, the translator's role in the translation process and the connotation of the subjectivity are explored in chapter two. The paper discusses the subjective initiative of translator from Hermeneutist perspective in chapter three. This thesis applies the basic notions of Gadamer's philosophical Hermeneutics—fore-understanding, prejudice and fusion of horizons to justify the reason for the translator's subjectivity. The paper concentrates on the purposes of the translator from functionalist perspective in chapter four. According to Skopostheorie,translation is action determined by purposes, and translator is regarded as the expert to fulfill the purpose and negotiate the commission. Translators are no longer considered as inferior to the author, but are considered as the creative manipulator. The paper uses cultural perspective to explore the constraints of subjectivity in chapter five. Being embedded in cultures, any evaluation of translation depends on the status it has in a particular culture system. Hence, cultural factors, including social, linguistic, ideological norms and intended readers become the indispensable elements to constrain the choice and decision of the translator. The last chapter summarizes the discussions above in an explicit way and comes to the conclusion .