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On The Translator's Subjectivity From The Target Culture Perspective

Posted on:2009-05-14Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360245466991Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
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As the subject of translation, the translator is the most important and dynamic element in translation, and he or she unavoidably displays his or her subjectivity in the translation process. However, in the history of translation studies, the translator has long been inferior to the author and the source text, and the translator's subjectivity has been ignored or even denied. With the "cultural turn" in translation, the translator's central status has been rediscovered, and the translator's subjectivity has been studied in the wide culture context. Gideon Toury, the representative of the polysystem school, puts forward "Target Text Theory", and defines translations as facts of target cultures. He holds that the translator is constrained by various factors existing in the target culture. With the development of translation theory and translation practice, the translator is no longer a passive imitator in translation activities, so the translator's subjectivity has changed from anonymity to prominence.This thesis mainly discusses the translator's subjectivity from the perspective of the target culture, aiming to explore how Chinese culture, as the target culture, influences the translator's translating behavior, and how Chinese translators' subjectivity is presented in English-Chinese translation activities.This thesis consists of six chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter one is the introduction. The introduction states the necessity to study the translator's subjectivity in the target culture. Chapter two discusses subject and subjectivity from the perspective of philosophy, provides the definition of the translator's subjectivity, and reviews how the translator's role has been understood in translation history, both in China and abroad. Chapter three analyzes the translator's subjectivity and the target culture. Firstly, the relationship between the translator's subjectivity and the culture is discussed. Then translation views of Susan Bassnett, Andre Lefevere and Gideon Toury are generally described as the theory basis of this thesis. Chapter four is the main part of the whole thesis. This part explores how the Chinese translator's subjectivity in English-Chinese translation is manifested at different times. Viewing Chinese culture as the target culture, I analyze the translator's involvement in translation from the perspective of his or her selection of source texts, translation strategies and the styles of the translated texts. Then I discuss the relationship between the translator's subjectivity and ideology, and translation norms' influence on the translator's subjectivity. Under the influence of the target culture, the translator is not always in the passive position, and the translator's subjectivity is manifested as the initiative, dynamic role and creative power in translation activities. Chapter five focuses on the translator's subjectivity under cultural constraints. Cultural constraints provide more opportunities for the translator to exhibit his or her subjectivity, but cultural constraints prevent the translator from giving completely free space to his or her subjectivity. The translator operates in the target culture, and at the same time he or she is also restricted by various factors in the source culture. Thus the translator's subjectivity always exists in the interaction between the source culture and the target culture. The sixth chapter is the conclusion, which summarizes the contents of the thesis, and points out the translator's cultural features in translation process. Therefore, translators must have a good command of the source language and the target language, understand source culture and target culture, and keep up with the cultural change to bring their subjectivity into full play.
Keywords/Search Tags:the translator's subjectivity, the target culture, source texts, styles, translation strategies
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