Translator’s Subjectivity In Obama’s Political Speeches Translation

With the development of translation, translator’s status has been elevated from marginal position to front. More and more scholars begin to do researches on translator’s subjectivity in the texts of different styles. Enlightened by previous achievements, the author studies the translator’s subjectivity in Obama’s political speeches in the perspective of George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion. First of all, the paper introduces the previous researches on translator’s subjectivity abroad and in China as well as the previous researches on E-C translation of political speech. Then, the author makes a comprehensive introduction to translator’s subjectivity, Hermeneutics and the close relationship between them. Based on the study on translating Obama’s political speeches in the perspective of George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion namely trust, aggression, incorporation and compensation, the paper points out that the translator’s subjectivity can be easily found in each stage of Steiner’s hermeneutic motion by analysis of theoretical research and instances. In the first stage of trust, political speech as a very important style and Barack Obama as a very affective president contribute the trust for the translators. In the stages of aggression and incorporation, the source texts are invaded by the translators and different historical backgrounds and linguistic habits become the barriers of translators. Exerting their subjectivities to the translated versions in meaning and form, translators make the translation understandable to readers. In the final stage of compensation, in order to remedy the loss, the translator must compensate the loss within sentence to make the translated version easily understood by readers. At last, the conclusion can be drawn that, if translator’s subjectivity can be displayed to the maximum level at each stage, a qualified translation version can be achieved without problem.