A Contrastive Study Of Translator's Subjectivity In Chang Sheng Dian From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Chinese classical literature translation has always been one of the most important means to promote the historical and cultural exchangement among different countries. Chinese classical opera is an important element of Chinese history and traditional culture. Therefore, Chinese classical opera translation does not only have a great significance to cross-cultural communication, but also provides a necessary way for western countries to comprehensively understand Chinese history and culture.Jef Verschueren's Adaptation Theory has a great. guiding effect on language use. It emphasizes that language use is a process of constant choice-making and in this process,translators have their own subjective options. In translation process,translator's choices are restricted by various factors. Under these different factors,translator's different choices in each level will have great impact on the production of translation versions.On the basis of Adaptation Theory proposed by Jef Verschueren, this research makes a comparative study of the translator's subjectivities between the two English versions of Chang Sheng Dian which are written by Yang Xianyi and Xu Yuanchong respectively. First of all, this thesis studies the manifestations of translator's subjectivities in the two English versions respectively from the three dimensions of linguistic structure, culture context and intercultural communication; and then,it makes a comparative study to analyze translators' subjectivities in the two English versions from the perspective of Adaptation Theory and summarizes the discrepancies of translators' subjectivity in these two English translation versions. Through the comparative study of the two English versions, we find that there are some discrepancies in language styles of Yang's version and Xu's version. In the process of text transplantation, on the basis of conveying meanings accurately, Xu Yuanchong pays more attention to the transplantation of original language forms or styles. Therefore, Xu's version is closer to the original and reflects more language features of Chinese opera; On the other hand, however,there exists some difference between the original and Yang's version in language styles. His version reflects more of his own unique translation styles and even omits some parts of the original. However, considering the different language environment of foreign readers, he has made some footnotes in his version for understanding his version better. At last, this thesis summarizes some factors influencing the exertion of translator's subjectivity in the process of translation.This thesis provides a new direction for Anthology of Chinese Masterpieces Translation. It is not only helpful to the study of translators in the translation process, but also provides a new perspective for the study of other factors: such as the study of the author, original texts,translated texts, sponsor and the readers involved in the translation process, and broadens the way of translation studies and facilitates the development of intercultural communication.