An Analysis On The Translators' Subjectivity From The Perspective Of The Postcolonial Translation Theory

Language is an effective tool for communication. Translation, as an important branch of humanities, is developing closely with the social culture, the politics, the economy, the ideology and so on. The traditional translation just focused on the pure language and text which didn't take the political, social,historical and cultural factors into consideration. The postcolonial theory, emerging from the end of 1980s, is leading the political and critical strategy into the translation research and integrated with the cultural globalization and cultural paradigm on the translation study. It is also promoting profoundly and greatly of the"cultural turn"on translation which has got deep and realistic influences.The postcolonial translation theory reveals the status of translators obviously than before. The subjectivity of the translator is becoming the new subject. When facing the original texts, as the main body of translation, the translators should brain their minds and make full use of subjectivity to do the translation and these consciousnesses inevitably have the influences on the texts'understanding and the translation. Certainly, their own bilingual cultural ability, language ability and understanding ability will restrain the working of their subjectivity.Lin Yutang devoted all his life to promoting the East and West cultural communication, especially on the translation research and introducing Chinese culture. In the first half of 20th century, China was in the weak and awkward position. In the unbalanced culture exporting, Lin Yutang wrote and translated a large number of works introducing Chinese culture; he provided an objective and effective way for the Western Countries in the globalization background. Through the skillful combination of Foreignization and Domestication strategies, he has formed a relatively integrated theory system. Lin earlier realized the important role of the translators and the readers of the translated texts, so he integrated the translators and the readers in his translation theory which is different from the predecessors. For example, under the unbalanced cultural communication and Anti-Japan war period, Lin combined his own cultural desire in finishing the Moment in Peking, which is a realization of his cultural dream.From the postcolonial translation point of view, on the basis of analysis on the Moment in Peking, the author of this thesis wants to discuss the embodiment of subjectivity and restrictive factors on the translators under the cultural and social context. On one hand, the author would like to confirm the subjectivity of the translators, it is the main purpose and key point, and on the other hand, on the premise of respecting the texts, the translators should realize the restriction of objectivity clearly. At the same time, besides the positive aspects, the postcolonial translation theory still has some disadvantages on the theory frame, the applicable scope and emphasis. The translators should pay more attention on the freedom of themselves and translation strategies. Compared with other countries, China is relatively late for introducing this theory. In order to perfect our translation theory, Chinese scholars can take its essences, abandoning its dregs and do our part for the healthy development of translation in the global context.