Translator's Subjectivity In Translating

The problems the traditional translation study explored are concentrated on the following aspects: traditional criteria, the argument between "metaphrase" and "paraphrase", the problem of translatability and untranslatability, and the style in literary translation. Recently, translator, one of essential factors in translation has attracted more and more attention of specialists and scholars who enter the study of this problem. This thesis, firstly, points out that it is important to carry out research into the translator's subjectivity. Then, according to the four paradigms of Chinese translation study divided by Professor Lv Jun, the author discusses the position of translator's subjectivity in the translation study of philological paradigm, structural paradigm, post-structural paradigm and constructivist paradigm respectively. In the translation study of philological paradigm, under the influence of philosophical thoughts of classical knowledge theory, the translation theory and translation criteria are just the wise remarks of those experienced translators, which causes the translator-centered subjectivity in this paradigm. However, in the translation study of structural paradigm, the philosophical foundation was changed from ontology and metaphysics into epistemology. Laying emphasis on the synchronic characteristics of language, structuralism highlights the common properties of languages, which holds the view that every part in all the languages can be substituted or changed on the basis of certain principles. The .text is considered as a closed system which has nothing to do with the outside world. The objective text is irrelevant to thesubjective initiative. Consequently, the translator's subjectivity is neglected. Moreover, in the translation study of post-structural paradigm, the author discusses the problem of translator's subjectivity from the perspectives of Hermeneutics, Reception Aesthetics and Deconstructuralism. Influenced by the three literary criticism theories, the translator's subjectivity experiences the three processes of affirmation, reaffirmation and excessive exaggeration. Finally, the author argues that all these attitudes are not scientific. With the help of a great German philosopher, Habermas' Communication Action Theory, this thesis concludes that in the translation study of constructivist paradigm, the- translator's subjectivity should be rethought and reinterpreted from pragmatic perspective. According to Habermas, only in the interrelation to the society, can a single person exist as a distinctive personality. Isolated from social group, the so-called ego and subject cannot do anything at all. Therefore, in the translation study of constructivist paradigm, translation is an equal dialogue between two subjects with the help of the media—language in order to reach a mutual understanding of the world where they live. Intersubjective understanding and communication become the focus of the study of translator's subjectivity. It can be seen that social action characterizes translator's subjectivity.