The Translator's Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Steiner's Hermeneutic Translation

Before the appearance of translation turn in the 1970s, translation used to be simply regarded as a linguistic phenomenon, and a pure corresponding code switch between languages. The translated texts are considered to be the reproductions of the original texts. The translator as the center of translation activity has been placed in a marginalized place, and translator's status can not be treated fairly. Along with the development of translation study, translation theorists have realized that translation is not just a matter of language but also a matter of culture. Since the 1970s, the representatives of translation research school Holmes, Bassenett and Andre Lefevere put forward the slogan"cultural Turn". Since then the key of translation shifts from writer to the translator, from original language culture to source language culture, and provides a new vision and approach for the translation research. In 1990, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere co-authored a book entitled Translation, History and Culture which was considered as the representative of cultural turn which started the cultural turn of translation formally. From then on, the translation study began to cast off the closed and static system of binary opposition, entered into context, history, culture and some other dynamic and large macro-environments, and began to discuss the manipulated factors that affecting the entire translation process. Polysystem Theory, descriptive theory, mulptive theory and hermeneutic theory begin to pay attention to the translated text and the culture of the translated version. And further promote the research of translator's subjectivity. Among the entire translation theorists, George Steiner's hermeneutic translation theory was one of the primary theories to put the focus of research on the translator's subjectivity. Steiner introduced the philosophical hermeneutics into translation studies, and divided the process of translation into four steps: that is trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation emphasizing on the specific correlation between comprehension and expression on the part of the translator during the process of translation. First of all, the translator has to select the original version by aesthetic judgments, and be sure that the text is significant and worth translating; in the second step, translator enters the translation phase, at this point the translator may face hostility and resistance from the original. Translators have to exert their subjective initiative fully in the stage of aggression and invade into the original, engage in an approximately violent interpretation and translation. From the point of Semeiology, it means to break the shell of language symbol, and expose its external content. In the process of language transformation, translators face abundant problems as how to re-appear the idea information, aesthetic information and language style and how to convey the spirit of exotic cultures. To solve these problems, the translators have to exert their subjectivity for the purpose of digesting and incorporating the cultures of target language. Finally, the translator demands to restore the balance between the source-text and the target language. So compensation is essential.From the perspective of Steiner's hermeneutic theory, this thesis makes attempts to explore the different roles and forms of translator's subjectivity based on the comparative study of the selected translated Chinese versions of Romeo and Juliet. The thesis is divided into six parts. In the part of instruction, it mainly introduces the research background, the purpose, the significance, the methods and the outline of the paper.The first chapter is literature review; it elaborates the historical development and application of Steiner's translation theory in west and in China.The second chapter is the theoretical part; the author first makes a study on the background of the proposal of Steiner's theory. In the last part of the second chapter is to introduce the core of Steiner's hermeneutic translation theory—the fourfold translation motion theory, and it discusses how translators realize its subjectivity in the process of translation from microcosmic view.Chapter three introduces the experiences, education background and social background of the two translators. And also makes a specific introduction of the features of the two versions.Chapter four makes a comparative study on the two Chinese texts of Romeo and Juliet by Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu to analyze the embodiment of translator's subjectivity in the play. And the author will choose some examples to testify this.The last is the conclusion part, this thesis points out that Steiner's hermeneutic translation theory not only provides a totally-new prospective for translation study, but also provides theoretical base for the establishment of status of translator's subjectivity.Contemporary translation theorist George Steiner's hermeneutic motion uncovered the mystery of the translator in the translation process. The translator's subjectivity is fully embodied in this translation mode. This thesis put the translator's subjectivity into Steiner's hermeneutic motion translation theory to prove that the translator's subjectivity is exhibited in the whole dynamic process of translation. And this idea provides a theoretical basis to further establish the translator's role.