Translator’s Subjectivity Reflected In Xu Yuanchong’s Translation Theories And Practice

Having been engaged in literary translation for almost sixty years, Xu Yuanchongclaimed himself to be the one and only scholar who can translate Chinese poetry into bothEnglish and French and the other way around. He translated a large number of Chineseclassical poems, and made tremendous contributions to the spread of Chinese culture andenhancement of Chinese culture’s position in the world. All these accomplishments madehim deserve the reputation as one of the most remarkable contributors in Chinese poetrytranslation community of all time. With experience accumulated in his substantialtranslation practices, he developed a complete set of translation theories characterized byinheritance and innovation. However, it is oddly enough that such a fruitful and excellentscholar is as much blamed as praised. Consequently, the author finds it of specialsignificance to investigate the causes behind such an “abnormal” phenomenon, which onone hand enables us to better understand Xu’s translation thoughts and practices, and onthe other hand facilitates the formation of correct criticism outlook on translation.As one subject of translation and an important participant in the construction of ournational culture and cultural identity, the translator plays a critical role in the process oftranslation. With the “culture turn” in the translation studies, translator’s subjectivity hasgradually received public attention and extensive researches have been conducted amongscholars both at home and abroad. With the deepening of research concerning translator’ssubjectivity, its essence has been further enriched. Therefore, it is no longer possible toobtain a holistic and systematic explanation on translator’s subjectivity from a singletheoretical perspective. For this reason, the author takes Philosophical Hermeneutics,Power Discourse Theory and Skopos Theory as theoretical foundation, and points out thattranslator’s subjectivity is the dialectical unity of subjective initiative, purpose andconstraints.This thesis chooses translator’s subjectivity as a research perspective, Xu’s translationtheories and practices as the object of study, by adopting methods of literature research,qualitative study and case study, to explore into Xu Yuanchong’s display of translator’ssubjectivity both in his translation theories and practices. Through analysis, a conclusion is drawn that influenced by his translation competence, personal character and translationmotivation, he overemphasizes translator’s subjective initiative and purpose and neglectsthe constraints. Hopefully, this study can deepen people’s understanding of translator’ssubjectivity, introduce and publicize Xu Yuanchong’s translation thought in a selectivemanner, thus to appeal scholars to appreciate his translated works critically.