Analysis Of Translator’s Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Translation Aesthetics

As a crucial part of national culture construction, translators would be respected becauseof their leading role and functions in the cross-lingual and cross-cultural communication. Thetranslation theory scholars concern more about the methodology and standards of translationwhich results in undervaluation of studies on translators for a long time. In the1970s, the“culture turn” in translation theory paved a way for us to view translation studies from a newperspective. Studies about translator’s subjectivity are inviting wide attentions of westerntheorists. Thus the studies on translator’s subjectivity abroad and at home are on increase. Theresult is that the translators’ status is shifted from state of marginalized and ignored to the mainpart in translation theory domain. Translation aesthetics not only uncovers origins betweentranslation and aesthetics but also discusses the specific significance aesthetics contributing totranslation study as well. The viewpoints of translation aesthetics make for the propositions ofaesthetic standards in various literary forms, and the analysis, interpretations and solutions forthe aesthetic issues in the language transition. Translation is an aesthetic representation subject.The translators are regarded as aesthetic subjects based on their own aesthetic consciousness.The translators make comprehensions, decode and reproduce aesthetic objects, which are thevery reflections of translator’s subjectivity.Written by Qian Zhongshu, Fortress Besieged enjoys a high value in literature andaesthetic at home and abroad. To begin with, this study discusses the definition and content oftranslator’s subjectivity, then analyzes and summarizes its current situation. The introductionsof Qian Zhongshu and discussions about his work Fortress Besieged are followed by asummary which mainly includes the current researches of the Fortress Besieged’s Englishversion translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao. By using the translation aestheticstheories, the beauties in literary works are divided into two types: static and dynamic, namelyfrom levels of phonemics, lexical and syntax; and language vagueness and image respectively.From these aspects, the aesthetic differentia between Chinese and English could be comparedand analyzed. The main body of this study is to compare the novel’s Chinese version with theEnglish version from the translation aesthetics view. The comparison conducted at the levels ofphonemics, word, sentence, language vagueness and image, which aim at dissecting howtranslator’s subjectivity shaped these differences.In the last part, a conclusion can be drawn from the above analysis and discussion thattranslation is more of a process of culture and aesthetic feeling transfer behind the languagethan only the “skin-deep” language transition. All of these shifts are operated by translators andtranslator’s subjectivity abounds creativities.