On Translators' Annotation Subjectivity And Its Limits In Literary Translation

Something lost in translation,a common phenomenon resulting from cultural differences,is always unavoidable for translators when conducting translation work.As an effective means of translation compensation,translation annotation is always a must to fill in the meaning vacuum resulting from the cultural absence.However,when we enjoy the convenience of translation annotation,we tend to neglect the extra content in it.The newly added content,whether positive or negative,also comes from translators' subjectivity.In our translation studies,translation annotation is always invisible or at least marginalized.However,annotation,which helps widen readers' horizon and knowledge,is key to the translation quality of a whole text.While reading the two Chinese-English books and one English-Chinese book: The Three-Body Problem,The Three-Body Problem II : The Dark Forest and Jude the Obscure translated by different translators,the author of the thesis finds a special phenomenon that much extra information,including some smuggled cultural content,has been crammed in the annotation,which demonstrates much translators' subjectivity.In order to find out whether or not translators' annotation subjectivity remains untouched or little touched by other scholars,a literature review of translators' annotation subjectivity is a must.For this purpose,the author makes a research on all the existing researches of translators' subjectivity,translators' subjectivity against the backdrop of Chinese culture "going out",translators' annotation subjectivity,the cultural smuggling in translation annotation,which reveals the fact that translators' annotation subjectivity has rarely been discussed and it needs further study.The thesis goes on with a comprehensive study of translators' annotation,covering its concept,types and functions.And why is there translators' annotation subjectivity? The thesis attempts to answer this question with the insight provided by cultural translation theory and the theory of translators' subjectivity.The research also finds that although translators enjoy huge subjectivity in annotation,such subjectivity is not absolute.When a translator brings his\her subjectivity into full play,he\she must realise,especially against the backdrop of Chinese culture “going out”,the limits for his\her freedom,such as ideological elements,a translator's morality and the textual grids.