Study Of Translator’s Psychology

As an indispensable bridge between the original text and the target text, the translator is the subject of translation activity. To better understand translation activity, we need to study translators and to study translators, we inevitably need to study the translators’ psychology. With diversified development of translation study, research on translation psychology, especially translator’s psychology, has attracted academic attention. But the relevant research, both in terms of depth and breadth, remains to be further expanded.John Minford is a sinologist, scholar and literary translator. He is known for his translation of Chinese classics such as The Story of the Stone, the Art of War and the Deer and the Cauldron. His version reads smooth and beautiful. Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai Zhiyi is the peak of short stories in Chinese literature and is gradually appreciated by English readers. Among all the English translations of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, John Minford’version has aroused wide interest in English-speaking world. However, there is limited study on this translation version. Therefore this thesis tends to explore Minford’s psychology in translating Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio with an aim to enrich the studies of translator’s psychology and draw more attention to furthering the study of this version.This thesis comprises of six chapters. Chapter one states the background, motivation, methods and significance of the research. Chapter two is the literature review on the study of translator’s psychology, research on Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and John Minford. The third chapter is the theoretical framework of this study. Chapter four and Chapter five, the main body of the thesis, focus on the analysis of Minford’s pre-translation psychology and peri-translation psychology. Chapter six is the conclusion, in which the limitations of research are put forward, and some advices are given for future study.