Translator's Subjectivity In Zhang Ailing's Translations From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation Theory

The "cultural turn" of translation studies in the 1980s makes people recognize the political, social and historical aspects of translation activity. Hence, people begin to pay attention to the position of translators. The gender issue, as an important part of cultural studies, is only natural to be associated with translation; and it provides a new angle for translation studies since culture and translation are inherently interrelated viewed from the perspective of the "cultural turn". The combination of gender and translation serves as a crucial factor to promote the rise of feminist translation theory. Feminist translation theory has broadened the realm of translation studies and provided a unique perspective-gender perspective to translation studies, especially to the study of translator's subjectivity. Taking "translator's subjectivity from a gendered perspective" as its starting point, this thesis tries to explore the foregrounding of translator's subjectivity by feminist translation theory in terms of its theory and practice. Firstly, in theory, feminist translation theory refuses to accept the traditional original/author-centered concepts. Instead, it emphasizes the equal status between the translator and the author. It reinterprets "fidelity" from a feminist perspective and argues that "fidelity" should be directed towards the writing project instead of the author or the reader to foreground the female subjectivity. Secondly, in practice, feminist translators transgress the traditional bound of "invisibility" by their conscious choice of text and interventionist translation strategies. In this way, they emphasize the presence of the translator and foreground translator subjectivity.It is well known that feminist translation theory originates from the west. However, a specific theory is sometimes only applicable in a specific context so the author explores the feminist translation theory both in the west and in China because of the great discrepancy between China and the west in their historical and cultural tradition, history of feminism and translation practices, Chinese women translators have their own characteristics different from those of the western feminist translators. They still adhere to traditional translation concepts like "fidelity" and "fluency". However, under the influence of gender awareness, their translator's subjectivity is manifested in their conscious choice of the original text and translation strategies.Zhang Ailing, a very famous bilingual writer in China, is frequently studied on her writings. However, her translations, as an important part of her literary contributions, are rarely paid attention to. In view of this, the author takes Zhang Ailing's translations as a case study, in an attempt to explore the foregrounding of translator's subjectivity in feminist translation theory. By analyzing Zhang Ailing's translations, we can find that Zhang Ailing displays great subjectivity in the selection of the original text, especially the selection of her own literary works, and in the adoption of translation strategies. In this thesis, the author makes a specific analysis of how Zhang Ailing's subjectivity is displayed through the selection of the original and translation strategies, and also gives the relationship between Zhang Ailing's manifestation of translator's subjectivity and the objective of feminist translation.