A Psychoanalytic Study On The Translator

Psychoanalysis has been availed to a great extent in literary criticism during the past decades. However, little has been done in translation studies in terms of the mentality of translators from psychoanalytic point of view. The present study aims to fill in the gap by probing into the inner structure of translator's personality so as to redefine the decision making process and reveal the true self of translator and nature of creativity involved in translation process.Translation studies, including those on translation criteria and principles, interrelationship of the relevant parties, translation techniques, cultural aspects, and post destructuralism and so forth, have inclusively focused on the external relationship between translator and the exterior environments, with attention far less than adequate paid to the inner most layers of the mentality of translator and the impact on translation practices. The fact that psychoanalysis is available for disclosing the nature of human mental work, particularly that of creative minds, makes it possible to explain where the creativity of translator comes from, and such questions as what to translate and how to translate.The present study is made on the basis of the theoretical achievements that precedent scholars have made, which concludes that the translator should be the subject of translation and that translation is an art of creation. Psychoanalytic approach toward translation studies shows that the difficulties in translation are not essentially a matter of language knowledge, technique, principle, culture or receptibility, but that of inhibition and emancipation process involved in the personality of the translator. The display of the true self of translator is the outcome of the conflict and negotiation between the translator's ego and the internalized voices of translation taboos rather than disputes over faithfulness and treachery.The existence and development of the unconscious id of translator does not rely...