On The Translator's Subjectivity In Literary Translation

The Chinese literary classic Hongloumeng, an encyclopedia of Chinese culture, has been translated into foreign languages and there are nine English translations. Two most influential English translations are A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Hsien-yi and his wife Gladys Yang and The Story of the Stone, by David Hawkes and John Minford. This thesis is a case study of these two English translations, intended to compare the two translations and explore the reasons for the differences from the perspective of the translator's subjectivity.As the most important subject in translation, the translator has long been ignored in translation history. However, the "cultural turn" since the 1970's in the West has widened the scope of translation studies and has highlighted the translator as the leading role in the process of translation. Literary translation criticism thus has also shifted its focus to the translator's reasons for choosing his/her translation strategies by putting the translator in a wider historical, social and cultural background.The literature review introduces the change of the translator's status in translation history and the studies of the translator's significance after the "cultural turn". Chapter Two discusses the translator's subjectivity, which is manifested in the whole process of his/her translation, from his/her choice of the original text to his/her adaptation of translation strategies. Chapter Three compares the differences between the two English versions of Hongloumeng in various aspects, including the translation of the title, the characters' names, the cultural words, and the dealing with introductory words, appendices and notes. We find that the Yangs' version is more faithful to the original, which favors literal translation and adopts a foreignizing strategy; while Hawkes' version is more interesting and entertaining, which prefers free translation and adopts a domesticating strategy. Chapter Four then explores the translators' different cultural standpoints, their translation purposes and intended readerships, and different historical and social environments in which they translated Hongloumeng, with the intention of giving the explanation for the differences...