A Personality-Psychological Approach To Translator's Subjectivity

With the development of translation theory studies and the reversion of humanism, the research on the translator's subjectivity has found its booming tendencies. The important role of the translator is not obscured any more. Scholars at home and abroad have justified the existence and principles of the translator's subjectivity from different perspectives, including Polysystem Theory, the manipulation school, hermeneutics, deconstructionism, feminism and post-colonialism, etc. A great deal of accomplishments have been reached indeed, however, the translator's psychology and personality, in particular, the translator's personality indication and characteristics have not been studied systematically. A few researches on the translator's subjectivity relating to psychology only touch upon the factors such as need-motivation, emotion-sensibility, and consciousness-unconsciousness, which also belong to the subsystem of personality.The thesis deals with the translator's subjectivity from a personality-psychological angle to examine the objective reason why the translator's subjectivity influences translation and how the personality factors influence the translator's subjectivity for the purpose of exposing the internal mechanism of senior psychological activities in the translator's subjectivity.First, the author expounds the connotations of subject and subjectivity, and tries to give a definition of the translator's subjectivity in the framework of personality psychology. Besides, the author reviews the vicissitudes of the translator's subjectivity from invisibility to visibility and the expatiation on the translator's subjectivity from different perspectives. Then the thesis introduces personality psychology and analyses the close relationship between personality and the translator's subjectivity in order to prove that personality psychology can be applied to the study of the translator's subjectivity. It also discusses objectivity of the translator's subjectivity and the influence of personality factors on the translator's subjectivity. The case study of Lin Yutang's Six Chapters of a Floating Life illustrates the effect of Lin's cultural personality on the choice of the original texts, the influence of his need, motivation and intercultural communication competence on the choice of translating strategies and methods, and the function of his temperament and character on the translator's style.Finally, the author draws a conclusion that the translator's subjectivity exists objectively, which can be proved by the existence of the translator's personality, the organizer of people's behavior and psychological activities. The personality factors that influence the translator's subjectivity consist of personality indication, including need and motivation, the characteristics of personality consisting of ability, temperament and character, and cultural personality covering belief personality, ideal personality, aesthetics personality and morality personality. They have a great effect upon the choice of the original texts and of translating strategies as well as methods, and the formation of the translator's style. Only when the translator's personality has been taken into account will it be possible to correctly criticize different translations.