Differences Of Translator's Subjectivity From Two Chinese Versions Of Ulysses

Literary translation is a kind of communication across languages and cultures involving various factors. And there are many aspects related to literary translation. On the one hand, the background where the translated text was created, the translator's scholarly attainments, translation purpose, translation strategy and the readers' expectation horizon and reading tendency, etc. are all involved in literary translation from the angle of the translated text; on the other hand, ideology, poetics and patron of the target language also play more and more important roles in literary translation. These factors are far beyond the scope of traditional literary translation criticism and researches, and they belong to the non-textual factors when we conduct literary translation studies. That is, they are social and cultural factors that affect the generation of the translated text.This thesis, based on the theory of Translator's Subjectivity, making the comparison between the two most influential Chinese versions of the novel Ulysses as the research object, deals with the translator's subjective factors and the influence that the translator has on the characteristic of the translated text in the course of literary translation. By comparing some specific differences between two versions, the thesis analyses the differences in translator's subjectivity reflected in them, discovering the underlining causes why the two contemporary Chinese versions are completely stylistically different from each other. The thesis identifies that the translator's personal factors are always involved in both the course and the outcome of literary translation, and the translator as the exact subject of translation is the unique active factor. Both textual factors and non-textual factors are reflected in the translator's translation practice. On literary translation criticism, especially the comparison between different translated texts of the same original, the limitation of traditional research within literary system involving linguistics, aesthetics and narratology should be surpassed, and the translator's personal influence on the ultimate result of literary translation—the translated text should also be fully taken into consideration. The introduction to the theory of translator's subjectivity and the discussion of differences in translator's subjectivity will offer a new dimension to a more objective and exhaustive literary translation criticism and translated literature research.