Interpreting The Translator's Subjectivity In Literary Translation From A Cultural Perspective

Translation plays a crucial role in communication between languages and cultures, and literary translation is no exception. It is commonly accepted that literary translation has to some degree helped to improve the literature in the target culture. However, the status of the most active translator remained long invisible and has only attracted due attention in the past decades especially after the "Cultural Turn" in translation studies although the role s/he plays remains the same. The fact that literary translation, regarded as a recreation of arts, is characterized by faintness makes the translator's subjectivity more prominent. The translator's subjectivity is mainly manifested in the translator's initiatives in negotiating between languages and cultures with the influence of various constraints. This thesis makes an attempt to embody the translator's subjectivity on three levels of translation from a cultural perspective through analysis on extracts of translation. On the first level, the translator's subjectivity is embodied in the translator's choosing which original work to translate and the translator's deciding what adaptations are necessary. The translator has to consider whether the dominant ideology in the original work conforms to the dominant one in the target culture. The translator either chooses works with similar and progressive ideology to translate or to make necessary adaptations to make the original easily accepted by the target readers. Otherwise, the translation works might receive no popularity but get much criticism instead or may not be published at all. On the second level of social culture, the translator's cultural standpoints, that is, different attitudes towards source culture and target culture determine the translation strategies which straightly result in different translations. The translator may adopt the translation strategy of domestication or foreignization, which is also the manifestation of the translator's subjectivity. Then the language of the TT (Target Text) is considered on the third level. Translation of course involves the transformation between two languages and the translator's aesthetic appreciation and language style, the literacy and identity of the target readers contribute largely to the unique language of the TT. By analyzing extracts of translation, it is detected in this research that consciously or unconsciously, the translator's is exerting his/her subjectivity in the whole process of translation.