An Analysis Of The Translator’s Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

Since the “cultural turn” in western translation studies in 1970 s, translator’s subjectivity has increasingly become a hot topic in Chinese translation academic circle. Many theories have been applied in the study of translator’s subjectivity. In this thesis, the author employs manipulation theory to conduct a comparative analysis of the two Chinese versions of Nineteen Eighty-Four, a representative political allegory written by George Orwell, exploring the performance of translator’s subjectivity under the manipulation theory and the translation strategies of Nineteen Eighty-Four and its works of the same kind.As a leading person in cultural translation studies, Andre Lefevere(1944-1996), with his manipulative theory had a great impact on the development of the translation studies. This theory was mainly presented in his work of Translation, Rewriting and The Manipulation of Literary Fame. Lefevere advocated that all translations are rewriting. Under different history circumstances, rewriting was restrained by three aspects as below: ideology, poetics and patronage. Ideology is not limited within political field; it is a frame, consisting of model, belief and convention that specify our behavior. Poetics is formed by mainly two parts: one is literary device, theme or prototype of character; the other is the role literary plays in social system. Patronage can be a religious group, individual person, publishing house and mess media like newspapers or magazines. As the most active element in the translation process, the translator is constrained by the social and cultural elements. The translator, with ideology intends to manipulate literature through rewriting. The rewriting of translation is a method of serving the ideology, bringing impact on a certain social system. Therefore, the author applies the perspective of Lefevere’s three factors to review the concept of translator’s subjectivity, with the detailed analysis of the three factors affecting the translators.In this thesis, two Chinese versions of Nineteen Eighty-Four, written by British George Orwell, are studied in a descriptive and comparative way. Dong Leshan’s and Sun Zhongxu’s subjectivity can mainly be seen from the two aspects below: First, the selection and evaluation of the original text. During 1960 s in China, Dong had a sense of mission of saving our country and people and he chose Nineteen Eighty-Four to awake young people’s awareness of making contributions to the country; whereas Sun, a young translator born in modern time, chose this book mainly out of his personal interest. Second, the specific translation process, especially the choice of word and the strategies they adopted. Dong experienced a tenser political environment, but he still translated the original text with loyalty; while Sun expressed the real meaning of the original text faithfully, without any exaggeration. In translation strategies, Dong preferred to dialect and Chinese four-character idioms; while Sun utilized plain words and Chinese four-character idioms alternatively according to the original text. Although the two translators were in different social and cultural background, two translators showed their translator’s subjectivity, without being manipulated completely by cultural elements.From the research result, under the manipulation perspective, translator’s subjectivity is manipulated by the culture in different degrees; it is still showed in the translation process in a full-scale; scholars cannot attribute all rewriting in translation to cultural manipulation, ignoring the impact of translator’s subjectivity and other objective factors; thus literary works are featured with strong subjectivity, resulting in more phenomenon of misuse towards the manipulation theory, because of which translators should enhance their discriminative ability. In a word, the research result is beneficial of avoiding the misunderstanding and misuse phenomenon of the two theories. What’s more, the thesis works for a reference for the translation of not only Nineteen Eighty-Four, but other fictions of the same kind.