Translator's Subjectivity And Translation Norms In The Aesthetic Progression Of English-Chinese Literary Translating

As the literary text is a self-sufficient aesthetic object, it has been known that literary translation is not just to replace one formulated text with another. In literary translation the translator also experiences an aesthetic progression. The literary translation requires the translator to reconstruct the aesthetic experience that the original readers experienced in the source text in the end product. Translation as a social activity is limited to culture and history. Correspondingly, translation norms in a certain community govern all the translator's options in translation. Although the discussions on the translator's subjectivity by overseas and domestic scholars have been launched extensively, some crucial problems remain unsolved. These problems can be roughly classified into three aspects: first, the limits of the translator's subjectivity have been discounted; second, most discussions on the translator's subjectivity focus on the linguistic or cognitive aspects, and third, descriptive studies on the translator's subjectivity are rarely seen, in other words, there is a lack of spatial-temporal target-oriented studies.Thus based on cognitive psychology, this preliminary study proposes an initial discussion of the translator's aesthetic information processing in literary translation. Aesthetic perception, aesthetic imagination, the memory system in translator' aesthetic information processing are examined respectively. Based on the Toury's and Chesterman's translation norms theories, this study aims to get preliminary access to descriptive study of the translator's subjectivity by means of exploring the translator's aesthetic faculties under translation process norms. Therefore, this thesis is a descriptive theoretical study of translator's subjectivity in aesthetic progression of literary translation. It also deals with the relationship between translation norms and translator's subjectivity from the perspective of aesthetic psychology.This present thesis consists of six parts. Chapter I introduces the goals and research questions and the methodology in the research. Chapter II reviews the literature of both overseas and domestic studies on translator's subjectivity. It touches upon the conceptions of key terms. Chapter III focuses on theory framework. It is a review of the descriptive translation studies and translation norms, and the theoretical framework of the proposed study. Chapter IV and Chapter V deal with the most important questions. The discussion starts with the consideration of the subjectivity of literature in translating process and the translator's role. The translator is regarded as the subject of aesthetic progression. Then, the paper offers an in-depth analysis on the translator's subjectivity in the sense of aesthetic progression. The author attempts to establish a model which demonstrates the translator's aesthetic information processing in literary translation. In Chapter V the relationship between translation norms and the translator's subjectivity is discussed preliminarily from the aesthetic perspective. Chapter VI contains the conclusion. The last part is the bibliography.Consequently, this research paper discusses three issues: first, it makes a detailed investigation into the translator's subjectivity in aesthetic information processing of literary translation; second, it examines the translator's subjectivity from a new perspective, i.e., the domain of the translator's subjectivity in aesthetic reception of literary translation; and third, the research aims to build a model of the translator's aesthetic information processing in literary translation.