A Study On The Translator’s Subjectivity As Exemplified In Wolf Totem By Howard Goldblatt

Translators, as the subject of translation and the most active and positive factor in the translational activity, play a critical role in the translation process. However, this fact is sometimes ignored by the traditional translation theory studies. Translators’function doesn’t earn due appreciation and their role has long been a sensitive issue, while the original authors’position is always much higher than the translators’. Since 1970s, with the rising of cultural criticism and studies in the western academic theory field, a cultural turn appeared in the translation study field, which holds that the translational activity is an important part of cultural exchange between different languages, and further affirms the concept that translation is a complex cultural exchange, rather than simple language transformation. This cultural turn in translation studies inevitably concerns the topic of translation subject, and the study on translation subject has shifted more and more attention to translators’cultural identity and subjectivity’s influence on translation. Translators’subjectivity runs through the whole translation process, including text choosing, Translators’interests, personal experiences and translation objectives all have influence on translators’text choosing. Howard Goldblatt, an over-70-year-old professor and translator, has translated the works of Ba Jin, Mo Yan, Su Tong, Feng Jicai, Jia Ping’ao, A Lai, Liu Heng, Zhang Jie, Wang Shuo and so on. He argues if the process of Chinese literature walking toward the world is likened to a stool, the two legs of texts and readers are not enough, there should be a third leg, the middleman who introduces the texts to readers in another language. Professor Howard Goldblatt thinks that translation is not just about languages. Since there are differences between the cultures of different countries, it is not easy to find a proper word when translating. Another concern is whether foreign editors can understand and recognize the translation. The novel Wolf Totem discusses the relationship between human and nature and also between different cultures, which is an interesting topic for western readers. In 2007 November, this book won the Man Asian Literary Prize, a grand prize aiming to promote the best Asian literary works to the English-speaking countries. Judges from different countries all cast a vote to Wolf Totem, because it deeply reflects the environment protection and cultural conflict issues. The success of the translation of Wolf Totem is that it sets people thinking what works readers love, how translators shall translate, and how translators shall give play to the subjectivity. This thesis uses Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Wolf Totem as an example to analyze translators’subjectivity and sums up Howard Goldblatt’s translation ideas, strategies, and text handling methods, attempting to find out the effect of translators’subjectivity and correctly understand translators’position in the translational activities.