On The Translator's Subjectivity In The Chinese Translation Of The Da Vinci Code

The translator as the center and subject of the translation activity has long been placed in a marginalized position in the long history of the development of translation theory. However, it did not draw people's attention and become the topic for study until the cultural turn in the western translation research in the 1970s which gradually brought it into light and made it an important subject in translation studies.Based on the fourfold hermeneutic translation motion theory proposed by George Steiner, the thesis makes a tentative endeavor to embody the abstract concept of the translator's subjectivity into the four concrete steps of "trust", "aggression", "appropriation" and "compensation" in the research of the Chinese version of The Da Vinci Code so as to get a better understanding of the influence of translator's subjectivity and its prominent role in translation .As the foundation of George Steiner's theory, philosophical hermeneutics is of crucial theoretical significance to the research of the thesis. From the angle of the translator's subjectivity, the thesis makes close study on some key hermeneutic principles such as "pre-understanding", "prejudice" and "fusion of horizon".The Da Vinci Code is a mystery and detective novel by American author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday. In less than two years it has become a bestseller in 150 countries and one of the most widely- read books of our time. Facing the great challenge, the translators of The Da Vinci Code displayed their subjectivity to the utmost extent in the four concrete translation steps while translating it.Steiner holds that any translation activity starts from an initiative "trust" and belief. This trust or choice originates from the translator's evaluation of the original, his linguistic and cultural competence and his translation expectation. Starting from these three aspects, the thesis analyses on the detailed points of the translator's subjectivity through examples in the translated version of The Da Vinci Code and points out that the trust of the translators on the original is never made blindly or passively but based on sound subjective reasons.As the second motion, "aggression" is always partial and an unavoidable mode of attack on the original in Steiner's eyes, because translators have to reconcile to their times and backgrounds. However, this partiality is by no means always negative because it is just the aggression that makes the target language readers closer to the original author's horizon and bestows the original a second-life in the foreign language. The thesis proves that the translators' different religious and cultural consciousness and personal understandings influence the translation process and justify the subjectivity of the translators who are active creators but not passive machines or servants.The third motion, "appropriation", can be divided into two kinds: domesticating translation and foreignizing translation. As Gadamer sees it, understanding is historical. Both the subject who understands and the object, the text, which is interpreted, exist historically. Our vision will expand to meet the vision of the text, called the fusion of horizons. Understanding is the convergence of both visions, the fusion of horizons. The research on the translators' appropriation on these two aspects testifies the ubiquitous influence of the translators' subjectivity.A complete translation process must end with "compensation" which is justified by that factor that the translator's aggression and appropriation will inevitably lead to loss in translation. The translator should restore the equilibrium between the original and the translated version. Ideal translation is never achieved but it is the translator's endeavor to restore the balance that enables us to reach as near as we can to the ideal. The author of the thesis divides the compensation of The Da Vinci Code into two kinds: direct compensations- annotation and indirect compensation.Cultural difference, indeterminacy and the historical sense of a text determine that cultural misreading is inevitable in translation and leaves much room for the creativity of the translator. There are two types of cultural misreading. One is the "unconscious misreading", and the other is the "purposeful misreading". The former will be the focus of this thesis. In this thesis, the "unconscious misreading" is divided into two parts: misreading due to misunderstanding and misreading due to improper representation.