A Comparative Study On The Two Chinese Versions Of The Great Gatsby From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

Traditional translation theories focus on discussing translation questions at linguistic level,believing that translation is the duplication of the original in another language.Translation was regarded as a work of no creativity.Thus,the author and the original were in a sacred and inviolable position while the translator and translation were inferior.The translator was once compared to the “slave” and “servant” of the author.Translators should be absolutely faithful to the author and the original without changing the original meaning of the author or making any modification to the original.As a result,the subjective initiatives of the translator were seriously ignored.However,such situation changed with the appearance of “cultural turn”.In 1990 s,“cultural turn” appeared,and scholars started to pay attention to cultural factors in translation.André Lefevere pointed out that literature was only one system,belonging to a complicated system named culture.Because of such culture-oriented methodology,the importance of translator's subjectivity began to show.Since then,many scholars from different schools began to realize the importance of translator's subjectivity and many related researches were carried out.The publication of The Great Gatsby in 1925 laid the foundation for F.Scott Fitzgerald to be the spokesman of the “Jazz Age” and one of “Lost Generation” writers.As a magnum opus of Fitzgerald,The Great Gatsby was translated into different languages after its publication.In 2013,the newest translation by Li Jihong came out.This version drew much attention because the new movie,The Great Gatsby was on show.Also,Li's version caused controversies among people because of its publicity posters— “The best Chinese translation so far”.This thesis makes a systematical study on the definition and characteristics of translator's subjectivity and the status of translators.Then carries out a comparative study of the translator's subjectivity manifested in George Kao' s and Li Jihong' s translation version of The Great Gatsby.The analysis is carried out from the perspective of the three characteristics of translator's subjectivity,namely subjective initiative,passivity and self-benefiting.This thesis helps readers get a better understanding towards the two Chinese versions,reveals the relationship of the three characteristics and the influencing factors on translation and proves the value of translator's subjectivity in guiding literature translation.