A New Perspective On Translator’s Subjectivity

Translator’s subjectivity has become a frequently discussed topic ever since the realization that translators are not language transferring tools whose only concern is fidelity. The cultural school of translation studies made it clear that translation is bound to be influenced by social and cultural background. Therefore, absolute fidelity is impossible. People’s view on translators had greatly changed and most had come to acknowledge the important role of translators in the translation process, but during the cultural turn in translation studies, the focus of translators’ subjectivity was mostly on external factors and cultural background.In recent years, scholars have been trying to solve this problem. Many articles were published discussing subjectivity from the perspective of translators. However, after a brief look at some of the representative articles in Chapter Two of this thesis, it is found that most of the discussions treated translators as a whole and tried to analyze their roles in translation once and for all. The problem is that each translator is an independent existence who has his own unique aesthetic value, translation view, and artistic pursuit, etc. In philosophy, the study of subjectivity went through a process from the worship of nature, to the predominance of rationalism, and then to a focus on each individual being. This process is found to be quite inspiring and informative for the study of translator’s subjectivity. Therefore, the thesis goes on to use three pairs of antinomies in philosophy- passivity and activity, instinct and self-awareness, and inevitability and probability- to further explain the shift of focus from the outside world to each individual being, in an attempt to shed lights on the study of translators’ subjectivity.Shi Xianrong is a prolific translator who devoted his entire life to the study and introduction of western literature. He is special in that he is at the same time a translator and an expert in American and British literature. Due to the special political atmosphere of Shi’s time, previous studies often cited Shi as an example to demonstrate the manipulation of mainstream ideology and poetics. And the will and power of the individual translator was largely overlooked. Chapter Three employs Shi as a study case to discuss the demonstration of translators’ subjectivity from the perspective of activity, self-awareness, and probability. Since the translators’ choices are sometimes contingent, the analysis of translators is best done through their translations, which is the method adopted in this thesis. Activity is reflected in Shi’s attitude toward mainstream ideology and poetics, which is analyzed through the preface Shi wrote for his translation and a comparison between his two works. Self-awareness is embodied in Shi’s translation views. By studying Shi’s own articles on translation and literature, the thesis tries to understand Shi’s views on translator’s task, literal and free translation, the literariness of translated works, and diction.Based on the above analysis, the thesis attempts to present a more real and less-known translator’s image and shed some light on the connotation of translators’ subjectivity.