On Lin Yutang’s Subjectivity In His Translation

The translator is the most initiative factor who exalts his subjectivity in the whole process of translation. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find that the status of the translator has been ignored for over two thousand years while looking back to the translation history. Traditional translation studies mainly focus on the loyalty of the version, which seriously limits the exertion of the subjectivity of the translator. Fortunately, since the cultural turn, scholars gradually realize the vital importance of the translator in translation activities. No matter at home or abroad, there are numerous researches which put emphasis on the status of the translator.Lin Yutang is a master of Chinese culture, and meanwhile he has a proficient knowledge of both English and Chinese. He is not only a bilingual writer but also a competent literary translator with plenty of translation works. In order to introduce the Chinese culture to the Western readers, Lin Yutang translates a large amount of Chinese literary works, cultural works as well as classical philosophy works. His subjectivity of the translator runs through the whole course of his translation activities. Therefore, his work The Gay Genius:the Life and Times of Su Tungpo is taken as the research object to illustrate his subjectivity of the translator. This thesis focuses on Lin Yutang’s choice of the text and translation strategies in translation process from the aspect of his experiences alongside his translation purposes. Due to the close relationship between translation and culture, the choosing of translation strategies is also closely related to cultural factors. The experiences of living and studying in two different cultures have shaped Lin Yutang’s unique perspective towards culture, which makes him different from his contemporaries. Combining both foreignization and domestication translation strategies along with various translation methods as cultural compensation, cultural borrowing, cultural transposition and cultural omission, Lin Yutang transmits the cultural information effectively. Meanwhile Lin Yutang insists on his pursuit of translation standards as faithfulness, smoothness and beauty in his translation works, which reflects the vital importance of the translator’s subjectivity in translating process.