Translator's Subjectivity From A Feminist Perspective

Feminist translation is the natural intersection of the Cultural Turn in translation studies and the feminist movement. It challenges the traditional translation theories that translator should hide behind the author and the translation must be of absolute fidelity to the original text, strives for equal status between translator and author and between translation and the source text, and attaches great importance to translator's subjectivity.Feminist translators bring their subjectivity into full play through their manipulation of and intervention in the original text. They aim at subverting the patriarchal oppression imposed on women and constructing female identity. In translation practice, feminist translators prefer to choose works written by female writers and adopt radical translation strategies to make their voice heard and identities visible in the translations. However, some critics indicate that the overemphasis on feminist translators'subjectivity may lead to the misinterpretation of the original text and a false belief that male translators are not able to translate female works.This paper intends to explore the translator's subjectivity from a feminist perspective and conduct comparative studies of five Chinese translations of The Color Purple. Based on the theoretical and practical analyses, the author is expected to justify the following hypotheses: a male translator and his contemporary female translator will demonstrate different gender awareness in their translations of the same original text; the translations of the same source text done by translators of different sex will not produce the same translation effect; for the same female work, a female translator whose academic interest is also related to feminism will to some extent gain a better understanding of the original text than her contemporary male translator and demonstrate this understanding in her translation; meanwhile, the possibility that a male translator can also exhibit his gender consciousness more or less in his translation cannot be denied; and gender is not the only factor that can influence the translation.