An Intersubjective Approach To English Translation Of The Analects

Translation subjectivity studies have been influenced by subjectivity philosophy, analyzing translation activity in a subject-object dichotomy way. It results in the division of author, reader and translator and pushes the research to extremes. Actually, translation activity involves equal interactions between several subjects, thus only highlighting one subject while ignoring others is one-sided. This thesis focuses on intersubjectivity in the process of translation by applying philosophical intersubjectivity to the constructing of a working framework of translation intersubjectivity, which is in turn used to explain the differences in the translation of key concepts in the Analects between the two English versions by Legge and Waley.Philosophically, the subject refers a person who has the attributes of autonomy, purposiveness, creativity, and passivity, which constitute a person’s subjectivity. Intersubjectivity is the interactions between two or more subjects in terms of subjectivity on the one hand and their interactions with the object they are both confronted with on the other, forming a framework of intersubjectivity:two subjects are located at two bottom apexes of the triangle, interacting with the same object on the top apex, and revealing their subjectivity in this process. Translator, author and reader are the three major subjects in translation activities. The basic translation intersubjectivity framework includes two groups: a group of translator, author and source language text (SLT) and a group of translator, readers and the target language text (TLT). The interactions between the subjectivities of translator and author influence the translator’s choice of the text to be translated and its understanding; in contrast, the interactions between those of translator and readers impacts the translator’s option for translation purposes and strategies. Based on the working framework of translation intersubjectivity, the paper will contrast Legge and Waley’s English translations of key concepts in the Analects. In the stage of understanding the author and SLT, the two translators’ subjectivities in terms of the translators’ religious convictions and experiences interact with the subjectivity of the author embodied in his experiences and opinions, resulting in different attitudes; in the stage of TLT production, the translators’ passivity, especially pre-structures of culture interacts with readers’ cognitive level, leading to different translation purposes and strategies and ultimately different translations of key concepts.In conclusion, the thesis argues that the working framework of translation intersubjectivity can describe the intersubjectivity among author, translator and reader in a more objective and comprehensive way, and show its interpretive power in explaining differences between Legge and Waley’s translations of the key concepts.