A Study On English Versions Of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan From The Perspective Of Translators’ Subjectivity

As a classical work in Chinese and world literature, the novel Ah Q Zheng Zhuan is written with a distinct style. And its English translations differ greatly. But previous studies mainly concern faithfulness or translation purposes and seldom focus on why and how there are many differences among different translations.In an attempt to find out the hidden reasons, the present author tries to study its translation from the perspective of translators’ subjectivity in both macro and micro ways by conducting a comparative study of Ah Q Zheng Zhuan on two of its English versions, one by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, and the other by William Lyell. The paper points out that translators’ subjectivity is the initiative undertaken by the translator to achieve his or her translation purpose in the translation process with respect for the original author, the source text and the target reader, and constrained by factors such as the translator’s contemporary literary context and political ideology.Under the patronage and influence of The Foreign Languages Press, Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang aim to introduce the excellent Chinese culture to the foreign world and demonstrate their subjectivity by mainly employing literal translation and formal British English to fully reflect both the content and form in a style similar to Lu Xun’s. In contrast, as a Chinese literature and culture specialist, William Lyell pays more attention to his target American readers’ acceptance and demonstrates his subjectivity in his choice of the source text and translation strategies and typical colloquial American English.It is concluded that the translators have made full use of their subjectivity constrained by their contemporary literary context and political ideology and present distinctive versions, which opens up a new perspective to study the translation of a certain literary work.