The Translator's Subjectivity In Newspaper English Translation: Perspective Of Intertextuality Theory

For a long time in history, translation approach is prescriptive and source-text oriented. Much of the emphasis is put on the nature, criteria and techniques of translation both at home and abroad. This translation approach highlights the decisive status of the source text and puts the translator in a neglected position. The "cultural turn" in translation studies in the West after the 1970s has brought about new dimensions and approaches. With the rise of the descriptive translation approach, the complex role that the translator plays in the whole process of translation has caught the increasing attention of the translation theorists. The translator's subjectivity, one branch of the study on the translator, has become necessary and important research subject.According to lntertextuality Theory, the relation between the target text and the source text is a kind of intertextual relationship, and we could consider the source text as pre-text, and the target text as the text generated from pre-text. The translator is undoubtedly the mediator between the source text and the target text, for the translator shares three different identities: reader-interpreter-author. Therefore, the role of the translator in the perspective of intertextuality concentrates on the three aspects, that is, as the reader in the completing of the text, as the interpreter in the interpreting of the text and as the author in the rewriting of the text. Also, the constant swing of orientation from the source text to the target text reflects the shift of emphasis from the formal aspect of the text as an isolated fragment of language to the function of the translation as part of a broader social-cultural background. The translation is the "after-life" of the source text. The relation between the source text and the target text is not in a subordinate manner, which in fact claims to be an intertextual interaction. This kind of intertextual relation sufficiently justifies the creativity of the translator. Furthermore, the relationship between the author of the source text and the translator should no longer stay on a subordinate or servile level, but in an equally dialogic manner between subjects. The relationship between the translator and target language readers also claims to be a dialogic one between subjects of translation.This thesis falls into four chapters besides introduction and conclusion. The first chapter introduces newspaper English translation and the translator's subjectivity. Chapter Two introduces Intertextuality Theory and analyzes the translator's subjectivity in newspaper English translation under the guide of its theory, such as the intertextual relationships between the source text and the target text, the target text and the target language text, the dialogic relationships between the author of the source text and the translator, between the translator and the target readers. Chapter Three expounds the feasibility of the translator's subjectivity in newspaper English translation from the intertextual perspective. In the last chapter, some translation approaches and strategies in newspaper English translation are discussed.In short, this thesis takes the theory of intertextuality as a theoretic guide. On the one hand, the translation process of newspaper English is an intertextually dialogic one where the subjectivity of the translator can be represented to the most extent, on the other hand, the complexity of its translation activity is emphasized, so translation approaches and strategies should be fully taken into consideration in the whole process of translation.