An Intersubjective Study Of Yu Guangzhong’s Literary Creation And Translation

With the cultural turn of translation studies, the subjectivity of translator has longbeen recognized and analyzed. It is essential to have a better understanding of the roletranslators play in the whole translation process in order to sort out theinterrelationships between translator and ST author, translator and TT readers, STauthor and TT readers and the connections between translation and culturalcommunication. Systematic and specific studies of translators began in the1980s.The last20years has witnessed great progress in the study of this area. However,research on writer translators, a special group of translators with double identities haslagged behind the overall development. Scholars and theorists rarely single out thisgroup in their studies of famous and successful translators. Due to the features thattranslation activities share with literary creation, writer translator‘s subjectivityassumes unique characteristics for the translators‘bilingual and bicultural competenceand unique meditative role.Research on subjectivity, especially translator‘s subjectivity has attracted greatattention from scholars in the last decade. In the last few years, studies on the turnfrom subjectivity to inter-subjectivity have provided us with new theoretic perspectiveand guidance in the study of writer translators. Forsaking the shortcomings ofsubject/object dichotomy, inter-subjective study focuses on the communication anddialogue among subjects on equal basis. Applying it to translation study, translator, STauthor and TT readers should be regarded as equal subjects with different natures,namely the translating subject, creation subject and acceptance subject and translationas a communicative process among the translator, ST author and TT readers.Therefore every successful translation is the result of fair communication among thesesubjects. However, the shift of our focus to the study of inter-subjectivity should notresult in the overlooking of the study of translator‘s subjectivity. As the translatingsubject, the translator should take his initiative to mediate the interrelations of thesubjects when conflicts and misunderstandings arise due to reasons like culturaldifferences. With two identities embodied in one person, writer translators, as a unique and special group, contribute to the communication between languages andcultures in a more direct way than the other subjects.Theoretical discussion should always be combined with a detailed text analysis.By studying Yu Guangzhong‘s literary creation and translation activities, the authorargues that the substitution of subjectivity by intersubjectivity is an inevitable trend.Meanwhile a successful translation attributes a lot to the successful mediation of theintersubjective relationships by the translator. Translator‘s subjectivity builds a bridgeconnecting the text and the culture, the ST author and the TT readers. The analysis ofYu Guangzhong‘s literary creation and translation activities on the one hand illustratesthe intersubjective relations in actual translation activities and on the other handprovides a new perspective for the study of writer translators.