On Translation Of The Lantern Riddles In Hongloumeng From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

In the classical work of Hongloumeng, many exquisite lantern riddles not only form an integral part of the whole novel, but also play an important role in correlating the plots of the story, indicating the destinies and personalities of the characters, and reflecting the cultural life of that time. However, the study on the translation of the lantern riddles in Hongloumeng has not attained deserved attention and it does not correspond to the important status of the lantern riddles in this novel. In addition, under the great influence of the traditional translation theories, which tried to pursue a kind of complete equivalence between the source text and the target text on the basis of the linguistic transfer, the most dynamic element in translation activity― the translator has been overlooked by many researchers.With the appearance of the"cultural turn"in western translation studies in the 1970s, the translator's identity and role as the subject of translation have been promoted to a great extent. Thus, the translator's subjectivity becomes a new focus in translation studies. In recent years, increasing academic attentions have been paid to the studies on the translation subject and translator's subjectivity in Chinese translation circle and many remarkable achievements on these issues have also been obtained. Inspired by the findings of contemporary translation studies, the author of this thesis adopts the perspective of the translator's subjectivity to study the translation of the lantern riddles in two complete English versions of Hongloumeng and attempts to find an effective way for interpreting the translation of the lantern riddles in these two versions.By means of tracing back some scholars'comments on translation and translators through the translation history and following the shifts of translation criticism, this thesis scientifically probes into the connotation of the translator's subjectivity within the broad framework of contemporary translation theories, and then it applies the achievements of the studies on translator's subjectivity into the research on the English translation of lantern riddles in Hongloumeng. After that, a comparative analysis and discussion is made at such four phases of the translation process as the translator's choice of source texts, his or her understanding and interpretation of the source text, his or her choice of translating strategies and how to reproduce the characteristics of lantern riddles, so as to describe and explore the differences on the translation of lantern riddles between the two versions from the perspective of the translator's subjectivity, which mainly covers the translator's translation purpose, cultural orientation, reader awareness and aesthetic creativity. The integration of the study on the translator's subjectivity and the study on the translation of the lantern riddles in Hongloumeng helps to broaden and nourish each individual field. In the meanwhile, it is beneficial to the multi-dimensional development of modern translation criticism.