On The Androgyny Of The Translator

With the development of western feminist translation theory, concentration has been attracted to gender issues in translation practice. By a comprehensive study on the gender issues in domestic translation research, the author finds that some researches or case analysis from the perspective of feminism/gender issue are inadequate, and their conclusions are not so eloquent. Many scholars assert that translators either are feminists or paternalists or gender unconsciousness under patriarchal oppression.On account of the above reasons, the thesis employs feminist translation theory and androgyny theory to analyze the translator’s gender perspective in the process of translation. In psychology, Freud first puts forward the concept of the androgynous sub-consciousness of human being. Androgyny in humanities refers to the coexistence of masculine and feminine in one mind. Literary criticism argues that some writers show their androgynous perspective because they can cross the gender gap in his/her process of writing and thus present a narration characterized of the gender other. By introducing the theory into translation, the author holds that the translator can also bridge the gender gap and present androgynous perspective in target text. The thesis will illustrate the gender factor in translation objectively and comprehensively.The Color Purple is a feminism work written by the black female novelist Alice Walker. The thesis chooses two Chinese versions translated respectively by a male and a female translator, by applying comparative and descriptive methods, to make a comparison in terms of choice of words, translation strategies, and ideological background of both gendered translators and mainly focuses on whether a male translator is able to read the source text from the female writer’s viewpoints and whether his reproduction conveys the original feminist flavor.The author concludes that the translator’s gender-perspective indeed influences their translation. In most circumstance, female translator with gender awareness can employ some strategies to improve women’s statues. But to some extent, she also shows the opposite gender view. However, sometimes the male translator is more sensitive to details than the female translator and takes a stand from the gender other by adopting feminist strategies to manifest the female character and convey the original spirit. The phenomenon can be explained by translator’s androgynous perspective in translation practice. Under the same circumstance, the male translator’ability in understanding and reproducing the source text is lower than that of the female translator. In the end, the author suggests that translators should consciously cross the gap between the gender, and understand his/her viewpoints as possible as they can so as to achieve a high quality of the target text.