On Translator's Subjectivity In Literary Translation

Since the "cultural turn" in translation studies, the translators' status has been improved and translators' subjectivity has become a hot issue in translation studies. The translation process is actually the translators'decision making throughout the translation activity. Due to individual differences, translators choose different translation strategies and display different translation style when translating the source text. Also, in order to produce an excellent translation, translators should not only keep the readers consciousness but also give full play to their subjectivity and creativity.Based on the theory of translators' subjectivity, this thesis intends to explore the manifestations of the theory through a comparative study on the two Chinese versions of Still Alice. It is found that the translator's subjectivity is reflected in the interpretation of original text, translation style, translation strategies and the awareness of readers. In addition, the display of the translator's subjectivity is influenced by different cultural background, social context and literary attainments. While there have been a lot of studies about comparative study on literary translation, most of them were focused on world classics, little attention has been paid to contemporary bestsellers. Now, many contemporary bestsellers are very popular although most of them are not translated by famous translators. Thus, it's necessary to study them and discuss translation views of the translator. This thesis embarks on a task of comparative study of two Chinese versions of Still Alice to explore how translators take the subjective initiative in the translation process, including how to play the dual role of the reader and translator and how to deal with the transference of languages and the transmission of cultural information.