An Analysis Of Eileen Chang’s C-E Self-Translation From The Perspective Of Translator’s Subjectivity

Traditional translation emphasizes translation skills, methods and purposes. Source language orientated theory view the original text as the most important subject, but translation is only considered as a derivative and fake copy of the original text. This point of view ignores the translator’s subjectivity, which plays an important role in the translation process. Therefore, the translator has always been at the margin of the translation studies, and becomes the "invisible man".After the "Cultural Turn" in western translations studies, especially wide use of hermeneutics in translation research, translation theories have begun to pay more and more attention to the translator, which is one of the most important subjects of translation. Researchers began to realize that translator never was and should not be a. neutral machine of transmission without any individual characteristics and differences. During the whole process of translation, several subjects get involved, such as the author, the translator, and the target text readers. Though being confined by many factors, the translator can exert his or her subjectivity in some aspects. He/she may have relative freedom in choosing a source text, understanding the source text from his/her unique perspective, and outputting it into the target text in his/her style. This is translator’s subjectivity, a necessary and inevitable factor in the process of translation.Eileen Chang was an outstanding writer in the20th century and also the most influential female translator. Her works are widely studied. However, compared with her novels, studies on her translation are not so hot among the researchers, even colder when it comes to her self-translation. Eileen Chang has translated some of her own works and the self-translation enjoys its own characteristics. The thesis tries to analyze Eileen Chang’s C-E self-translation from the perspective of translator’s subjectivity. The subjectivity of translator should be judged objectively and without much overestimation, nor underestimation.Eileen Chang’s C-E self-translation fully demonstrates the translator’s subjectivity. Firstly, when it comes to the source text, the translator enjoys much freedom. Eileen Chang had tried various kinds of translations, including some English-Chinese works, such as the famous American novel, The Old Man and the Sea. However, she translated some of her own works instead of others, which means that she had made some special choices in the source texts for translation. In the aspect of translating purpose, self-translation is different from translation, because it is different from the traditional translation process, in which the translator himself serves not only the author but also the translator, bringing the translation more attention. Eileen Chang was very reader-conscious. She had done many modifications and corrections in order to satisfy the readers’needs. Finally, amplifications and omissions are used in her self-translation process because of the differences between the source language and the target language and the different needs of their target readers. Meanwhile the translator is unavoidably faced up with the constraints from the text, language barriers, cultural and historical differences. The C-E self-translation of Eileen Chang is the result of the combination of the translator’s subjectivity and the other factors. Finally, the thesis reaches the conclusion that translator’s subjectivity should be taken into consideration during the studies of translation theories and methods. The translator could and sometimes should release his/her subjectivity during the process of translation in order to suit his/her own purposes and also try to give insights into the foreign culture, which can help to remove the cultural gap and promote cultural communication.