The Translator: A Subject Limited By The Others

Traditional translation theories lack enough concern about and systematical research on the subjectivity of the translator. The subjectivity status of the translator has long been obscured. With the cultural turn in translation studies in the 1980s, the translator's subjectivity has been brought out to front. The issue on the subjectivity of the translator has become a hot topic in the translation circle. In China, scholars began to probe into the issue in the 1990s. But we should also realize that the translator is not an isolated subject when highlighting his subjectivity in the translation process. The display of his subjectivity is limited by the author subject and the reader subject. Such a position can get the theoretical supports from contemporary hermeneutics. The translation activity is no longer regarded as a merely linguistic transcoding, but instead a dialogic interrelationship. The original author, the translator and the target reader should co-exist harmoniously.The dissertation consists of four chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.The introduction gives a brief picture of the historical and present situation of the translation subjectivity studies and suggests that at present the translation circle doesn't show enough interest in the inter-subjectivity. The translation study should turn its focus from subjectivity to inter-subjectivity.In the first chapter, the author reviews the status of the translator in history, investigating the translator's double role and analyzing the three facets of the subjectivity of the translator, i.e. the translator's creativity, purposiveness and treason.Chapter two seeks to prove the insufficiency of the research of the translator's subjectivity, pointing out that the translator is not an isolated subject, but a subject restrained by the others. The others include theoriginal author and the target reader. The display of the translator's subjectivity is influenced by the subjectivity of the author and the reader. "'The' translation study should shift the focus from subjectivity to inter-subjectivity.Chapter three specifically analyzes the inter-subjectivity between the author and the translator with case study in the light of hermeneutics. The author and the translator respectively have their own pre-understandings. The version contains the voice of the author and the voice of the translator. The translated text implies a polyphonic structure that contains the voices of the translator, the author. Sometimes they agree with each other and sometimes they disagree with each other. The translator should try to shorten the aesthetic distance with the author, reaching fusion with the author's horizon to make the polyphonic structure weaken.Chapter four, combining theory with cases, continues to discuss the role of the target reader. The fulfillment of the version cannot ignore the reader's influence. In form of dialogue, the translator will attend to the reader's horizon. Sometimes he will cater to the reader's horizon, adjusting the translation themes, the translation strategies, the criteria of translation and bringing retranslation;sometimes he will try to alter the reader's horizon by diversified ways, instilling his own ideas to the intended reader.The conclusion stresses that the translator is the focal element and holds the central position in the translation process. Only a harmonious interrelationship between the three subjects can produce real "faithful" version. In any case, we can say the version is the outcome of the inter-subjectivity among the original author, the translator and the target reader.