A Comparative Study Of The Two Chinese Versions Of Beloved-from The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

Traditional translation theories hold that "faithfulness" is the criteria of translation, for the translator, to reproduce the original text faithfully is the ultimate purpose, and it is unacceptable for him to leave any personal marks in his translation. In other words, he should be "invisible" in translation. Therefore, the subjectivity of the translator is ignored.Since the late 1970s, the culture-oriented translation research approach has been applied in translation studies. People begin to examine translation and translator with a broader point of view. Being put under the macro-context of social, historical and cultural background, translation begins to be considered a process of intercultural communication rather than an end product. The translator, who possesses noticeable historical, cultural and personal characteristics, has become "visible" in translation.Gadamar's philosophical hermeneutics, which is the theory of interpretation, offers theoretical basis for translator's subjectivity. By applying hermeneutics to translation study, we can see the display of translator's subjectivity in the understanding and expressing stages in translating activity. On one hand, initiative and creativity is the typical characteristic of translator's subjectivity; on the other hand, because of the historicity of the translator, his subjectivity is displayed within certain constraints.Based on the theoretical foundation, the thesis explores the manifestation of translator's subjectivity in the two translated versions of Beloved.Beloved is a famous masterpiece, a well known novel written by American black writer Toni Morrison. There are two complete Chinese versions of it, "Jiaonü" (娇女) translated by Wang Youxuan and "Chong'er"(宠儿) translated by Pan Yue and Lei Ge. Through comparing the two versions in detail, the author intends to uncover the translator's subjectivity in understanding and expressing process, also analyses some restrictions in cultural and linguistic level.In Chapter 1, the thesis reviews the translator's status, as well as discusses the definition of the translator's subjectivity based on hermeneutics, which offers a theoretical foundation for the following chapters.In Chapter 2, the thesis gives an introduction to the original text Beloved and the two translated versions. An overall analysis of the original is critical in translation comment, and this chapter makes a comprehensive study of the themes, writing styles and language features of Beloved.In Chapter 3, the thesis probes into the manifestation of the two translators' subjectivity in Beloved's translation from two aspects, namely, in the understanding process and expressing process. According to philosophical hermeneutics, different translators possess different pre-understanding and prejudice, thus the translator's subjectivity is manifested in the process of understanding. In the process of expressing, subjectivity of the translator is also involved, in Beloved's translation, it is mainly reflected in translating strategies, translator's styles and skills in poem translations.In Chapter 4, the thesis analyzes the restrictions of translator's subjectivity with examples in Beloved's translated versions, this chapter is unfolded from two aspects: restrictions of cultural factors and restrictions of linguistic factors.The last chapter summarizes the whole thesis and points out the major findings and the limitations of this thesis.