Translator’s Subjectivity And Multiple Perspectives For The Translation Criticism

Translation criticism is a reflection and evaluation of translation activities. For a long time, translation criticism was always limited in text criticism. It took the traditional "true" standard as the only scale to judge the specific translation work or translation true or false. However, during the inspection of past translations critical theory and translation criticism practice, we discovered a problem:Under the guidance of different translation criticism theories, with different translation standards and values to measure one phenomenon of translation or the same text, there will be different and even opposite evaluation. Take some modern Chinese translations as example; if they are evaluated with traditional translation standards such as "faithful","faithfulness" and "letter Compiling", they are obviously unqualified (and dishonest). However, these translations did play a significant impact in history and have made indelible historic contributions. Thus, we find that the traditional who takes "faithful" as the only standard and is limited in language, therefore the texts challenged and the criticism seems difficult to be really accurate. With the cultural turn, studies and sociological turn of translation, researchers are no longer limited as they were in the past to do a simple conversion of the language or the style into a standardized text, but they will put translation into an ambitious cultural context to be reexamined. At the same time, the researchers started to focus on the role of the translator in the whole process of translation.This thesis is based on this idea:the translation of criticism should not be confined to the level of language translation and translation work itself, and attempt to set a rigid standard to contrast with the original and translated text, but should be the vision from the text to broader, more open areas. The focus of attention is the translator, the translation subject. Based on this, the main part of this article will take translators and their translation activities as the main focus. Then will come a reflection and a re-examination upon the dimension and vision of Translation Criticism. In the selection of the inspection object, I select several of the most important, influential and controversial translators with their work, which range from the1840Opium War to the1919May Fourth Movement to do research.This thesis is divided into three chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The introduction section presents a paradox phenomenon worth considering in the translation criticism:translation standards cannot properly evaluate some translation phenomenon and translated works. Then, I propose to build a multiple vision of translation criticism concerned about the translators’ subjectivity and to stress the need to pay attention to the translators’ subjectivity. I will then make a statement of the theoretical background, research ideas, the inspection object, the value and the overall structure of the thesis.In the first chapter, I start from the introduction of the status of translation criticism, saying that translation criticism is always limited to "language and text criticism" and evaluated only by "Faithful" for a long time. Such standards and methods bring many problems and contradictions in the actual operation of translation criticism. Therefore, the translation criticism should not be confined to the translation language level or translation work itself, but should "walk to the translator", explore the whole process of the translation from the perspective of the translator’s subjectivity.Based on the understanding of the first chapter, the second chapter will start from the translators. I select several the most important and influential and controversial translators and their works range from the late19th century to early20th century as the inspection subjects. I will focus on three aspects:firstly, the selection of translation purposes and the proposed text. The translation purpose of translators in this period is uniformly "national salvation". With this goal in mind, the proposed text has gone through the process of Western social science works to literature works, and the preset reader groups changed from the initial creator of the said concepts to the general public. Secondly, I will look at the choice of translation theory, culture, and translation strategies. The translator at this time tends to take the naturalization of translation strategies, making comprehensive use of a variety of specific methods such as add, cut and rewrite. Such a choice is mainly affected by two major factors:their translation concept and translation values, cultural attitudes and cultural standpoint. Thirdly, objective constraints and impact from external factors such as social history and cultural background upon modern translation, as practice attempts of translation criticism, the argumentation in this chapter combines theory and examples together. Selecting certain theories based on different analytical points of view to better analyze the phenomenon and explore the causes.According to the specific analysis and study of the second chapter, the third chapter will reflect on and examine dimensions and perspectives of translation criticism from the theoretical point from the practice of translation. Then I propose to build a multi-perspective of translation criticism and to not stick to the level of language and text, taking "faithful" as the only evaluation scale. We should find and attach importance to the main role of the translator and pay attention to their understanding of translation and positioning. At the same time, we should start from a specific historical context in translation criticism, concerned about the different political, cultural factors based on a view biased by historical facts and cultural values.The concluding section summarizes the arguments of all three chapters; it also explains that this thesis is an attempt to combine theory and practice. Finally, it also points out the achievements and shortcomings of this study and look forward to the follow-up study.