The Manifestation Of Translator’s Subjectivity In The Two Chinese Versions Of Wuthering Heights From The Perspective Of Feminist Translation Theory

Along with the deepening of cultural studies in the 1970 s, translation studies began to take its cultural turn with the focus shifted from the traditional linguistic level to the cultural level. With the wide spread of feminist movement, the issue of gender has been gradually entangled with translation studies. Thus, the natural integration of the two has laid a solid foundation for the emergence of feminist translation theory which in turn has provided a novel perspective for translation theorists, especially for those who are probing into translator’s subjectivity. However, it was not until the 1990 s that the feminist translation theory began to exert great influence upon Chinese academia in which most of the relevant researches so far are merely summaries and evaluations of the theory itself. Besides, many scholars at home and abroad have elaborated on the issue of translator’s subjectivity from different angles, but the study of translator’s subjectivity from the angle of feminist translation theory is still considered as a new try.As the thesis attempts to investigate into translator’s subjectivity from the perspective of feminist translation theory, the well-known feminist novel Wuthering Heights will be surely enough to achieve the goal of the present study. The two Chinese versions translated respectively by Fang Ping and Yang Yi are here selected to testify whether the two translators represent feminist awareness in their translations of Wuthering Heights and how the two translators differ from each other in manipulating their subjectivity.Influenced by the feminist color of the original novel, the two translators demonstrate different degrees of feminist awareness in the two Chinese versions with the employment of some translation strategies which are frequently adopted in translating feminist writings including supplementing, prefacing, footnoting and hijacking. Based on the textual analysis, it can be roughly deduced that the two translators manipulate their subjectivity with different degrees of feminist awareness. Yang tends to possess stronger feminist awareness than Fang in translating the novel, which to some extent inspires translation theorists to reflect on the directive role of feminist translation theory in feminist translation practice. Therefore, it is considered as a feasible try to discuss translator’s subjectivity from the perspective of feminist translation theory. Besides, the research on how translators approach feminist novels with feminist awareness is certainly of great significance to the present study.