A Hermeneutic Approach To The Translator’s Subjectivity In The Chinese Version Of The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, one of the greatest works of the 20 th century, is a masterpiece of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, an eminent American writer. Set in the 1920 s of America, the novel mainly tells about a tragic love story about the hero, Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of wealth and the American Dream. The earliest translated version of the novel appeared in the 1950 s in Taipei. Since then, many other versions were published, among which Kao’s was one of the most favored and successful ones. His rendition is a reflection of his wit and wisdom in translation. There have been some research on various translated versions of the novel, but few have been done to analyze Kao’s translation, let alone from hermeneutic perspective.After having been neglected for a long time, the translator’s role began to gain increasing attention since the cultural turn. Hermeneutics is a science on understanding and interpreting from the early stage. It is closely related to translation studies. The theory emphasizes that the text to be interpreted and the interpreter are historical existence. Each interpretation is a product of the era. The interpreter’s historical background, such as his life experience, knowledge, cultural awareness, etc will be involved in the process of translation. The translator’s unique style is inevitably imprinted in the translation, which is a manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity. So hermeneutics theory provides a new approach to the translator’s subjectivity.On the basis of hermeneutics, the thesis analyzes how George Kao’s subjectivity is reflected in his translated version of The Great Gatsby. After an in-depth study, the thesis uncovers that Kao’s historical background and life experience, translation thoughts and choice of the original text manifest his subjectivity as a translator. Kao’s translated work is characterized with the adoption of abundant classical and out-dated Chinese along with vernacular Chinese, employment of dialects of Wu and colloquial words and Chinese slang, etc. This unique translation style is also a reflection of his subjectivity. In addition, Kao made some modifications in his revised edition published 30 years later in 2001, which reflects his historicity of understanding in different times. The retranslation is also a manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity.