On The Translation Characteristics Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life By Lin Yutang

This thesis is a study on the translation characteristics of Lin Yutang's translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life from the perspective of the way he rendered cultural elements in the source text and his subjectivity as a translator.Six Chapters of a Floating Life is a testimony to Lin Yutang's superb skills as a translator. It is a fine example of translation strategies and techniques in dealing with cultural elements in the source text. By choosing detailed examples that containing Chinese cultural elements and analyzing their translation methods, we draw a conclusion that Lin Yutang had adopted different methods both foreignization and domestication flexibly with the goal of conveying to the target reader the original culture information to the great extent.It illustrates the function and importance of translator's subjectivity. In his rendition of Chinese cultural elements, Lin Yutang had skillfully adopted different methods with the aim to convey the rich cultural information to the reader as faithfully and completely as possible. Also, he retained the original style and beauty of the source texts intact. To a great extent, he had achieved this goal.This thesis first begins with a brief introduction to the source text and the translator's background, followed by a literature review of current translation theories and practices particularly that of cultural translation in translation studies. Lin Yutang's translation methods are taken up in Chapter 3, the main body of the thesis. Passages from Lin's works are cited to show how he handles the rich cultural information in the source text. The characteristics and styles of his translation are analyzed and discussed, as are the essence of Chinese culture and the Character of the people in support of the analysis. In Chapter 4, a detailed analysis of Lin's subjectivity is carried out, based on the current state of the theories and studies of the translator's subjectivity both home and aboard. It is demonstrated that Lin's translation is characterized by his subjectivity, which is closely connected with his personal experience and personal temperament. The conclusion sums up the research findings.The thesis is a case study of translation strategies and techniques as manifested in how cultural elements are handled and how the function and the importance of the translator's subjectivity are correlated. It also reminds us that the effective utilization of translator's subjectivity requires both the knowledge of language and culture and the cultivation of personal qualities as a translator.