On The Translator’s Subjectivity In Lin Yutang’s Version Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

As a famous writer, translator and linguist, Lin Yutang devoted himself to the cultural communication between the East and the West, especially by his efforts to introduce Chinese culture to the Western world. His unique bilingual and bicultural background makes him an excellent subject for studies on translator’s subjectivity. This thesis carries out a case study on Lin’s subjectivity manifested during all phases of his translation Six Chapters of a Floating Life with a detailed analysis about personal influence on source text-selection, the choices of translation strategies as well as methods.The study gives a brief review of the theoretical development of translator’s subjectivity and probes into Lin’s subjectivity manifested in the preparation and presentation process of his translation Six Chapters of a Floating Life. Lin regards translation as a fine art and proposes three translation criteria, "faithfulness, smoothness and aesthetic beauty", which emphasizes translator’s role and exhibits his fundamental thoughts on translator’s subjectivity. Owing to his sincere fondness of the original work, his cultural orientation, life philosophy and personality, Lin chose to translate this autobiographical essay into English. His main translation purpose was introducing the essence of Chinese traditional culture to the whole world. This translation purpose and his reader awareness led Lin to adopt foreignization as his major translation strategy and domestication as supplementary. He used flexible translation methods including cultural compensation, cultural transposition, cultural omission, etc., attempting to preserve the original meaning and feeling-tone of the source text while keeping fluency and comprehensibility of the translation. His translation is a good example to show the positive contribution of initiative and creativity on the part of the translator.The study shows that the translator’s subjectivity is an inherent attribute of the act of translation and it is manifested in different stages of translation. Lin as the translator brought adequate play to his initiative and creativity while paying sufficient respect for the source text, the author and target readers. Though constrained by many factors, Lin exerted his subjectivity and basically achieved success in his efforts of introducing Chinese culture to the West.