A Study Of Translators’ Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Postcolonial Translation Theory

Traditional translation theories center more on the pure linguistic transformation, overlooking the close relationship between translation and history, society, culture and politics. Postcolonial translation theory was started in1980s, with its focus on criticizing multi-cultural and political theories. It put translation in the contemporary background of cultural, political and economic globalization to promote the "cultural turn" of translation studies.Postcolonialism reveals the cultural invasion of strong culture over the weak one by means of translation through the point of deconstructionism, feminism, post-modernism, etc. The ultimate aim is to eliminate "cultural centralism" and "cultural hegemony" to build a dialogue between the East and the West on an equal basis. From the angle of postcolonialism, postcolonial translation theory puts translation in a specific historical background, unveiling the struggle for power behind translation activity or the unequal power relations between strong culture and weak culture. This thesis also points out that this cultural turn of translation studies accentuates the role played by translators, thus making translators’ subjectivity the new subject of translation studies.Translators are no longer seen only as "tools" but the main subject of translation activity with the development of translation theory. They are human and don’t live in a vacuum. So inevitably, their subjective factors are more or less reflected in the translation process. The author believes that this subjective initiative can not be overplayed. The translator has to interpret and manipulate the source text properly with respects to cultural differences and develop a healthy and equal dialogue between two different cultures. Only through this can cultural communication and integration be achieved.This thesis analyzes Six Chapters of A Floating Life by Lin Yutang from the perspective of postcolonial translation perspective. It explores the translators’ subjectivity’s manifesting factors and the restrictions limiting its play under the social cultural and political background. The author of this thesis points out subjective initiative and objective limitations (such as historical context, original work and source work author) should be reasonably reflected in translation activity in order to contribute to the communication between different cultures and the development of cultural globalization. As for translation strategies, absolute domestication or foreignization will result in cultural narcissism or cultural xenophobia. The optimal strategy is "hibridity". This thesis serves as a complement for the lack of studies on Lin Yutang’s subjectivity reflected in Six Chapters of A Floating Life from the angle of postcolonial translation theory. The author of this thesis sincerely wishes the study of this new theory can be continued later on so as to be conducive to the global cultural communication.