The Translator’s Subjectivity In Translating Chinese Versions Of The Color Purple From The Perspective Of Feminism

Feminist translation theory is a new translation theory which appears with the“cultural turn”. It not only denies the traditional hierarchy, but also provides a newfeminist perspective to study the relationship between the original text and thetranslated text. The ultimate goal is to highlight women and translators throughtranslation and strive for social status for them.First of all, this paper introduces translator’s subjectivity in feminist translationstudy. Feminist translators fully reflect their subjectivity through the manipulation andintervention of the original text. Feminist translation theory reveals the subjectivity oftranslators and emphasizes the creative treason in the translating process whichimproves the status of translators theoretically. In practice, by manipulating theoriginal text, feminist translators make the voice of female heard in the translated textand construct the female identity.In addition, this paper analyzes the superficial and connotative meaning of theoriginal text from the perspective of feminism. The superficial meaning shows blackwomen’s misfortune in patriarchal society. Behind the superficial text of the novel,there is also another text which is lesbian text. The author Walker positions Shug in themale-dominated world and become Celie’s lover. On the one hand, she fiercely attacksthe male hegemony in this hidden way; on the other hand, the solidarity and friendshipamong black women are consolidated.Finally, this paper intends to explore the translator’s subjectivity from theperspective of feminism. It compares and analyzes five Chinese versions of The ColorPurple and study the relation between the gender consciousness of translators andtranslation practice in the context of China. By comparing and analyzing the prefacesand translations of The Color Purple, this paper finds that female translators betterreproduces the feminist thought in the original text and shows stronger genderconsciousness than the male translator. However, in a few cases, the version of female translators also reflects patriarchal cultural characteristics. Besides, the version of themale translator reflects much stronger gender consciousness than female translators incertain places. In addition, translators’ gender consciousness may be defiladed. Thepatron and the context also have influence on translation, so the influence oftranslators’ gender consciousness on translation is not the first. Only when the patronand the context permit can the gender consciousness of translators be reflected.