An Analysis Of The Influence Of Feminism On Translation

For a long time,the traditional translation theory advocates that the contents,styles and forms of the translation should be faithful to the original.The original author was regarded as the master and the translator,the“servant”.Therefore literature translating was regarded as“dancing in fetters”.Because of the traditional difference in social and economic status between men and women,a female translator was even regarded as“the servant of the servant”.However,in the 80s of the 20^th century,the traditional translation approach underwent the great interdisciplinary cultural turn.The subjectivity of the translator was gradually valued.The female perspective of translation was also appreciated.Different research methods that focused on literature translation emerged.The feminist approach in translation became one of the most important perspectives.The feminist translation theory came into light at the right moment.In the traditional translation theory,the original text and the translated text was regarded as master-slave like relation in which the translator never shared equal respect as the author and were supposed to look up to the author.The original texts were regarded as powerful and strong male figures while the translated ones weak and humble female figures.The aspiration of the feminist translation theory was to criticize such discrimination that drove translation and women to the bottom of the literature and society,to shake the translational male authority that kept women and translation in such low social and literary status and to promote the status of women and translation.Feminist translation theory opposed the doctrine of the traditional translation theory which obscured the literature value of the translator and emphasized the subjectivity of the translator.It's goal was to make female translators'role seen and their voice heard.In contrast to the traditional translation theory and practice,the feminist translation theory was actually a great“creative treachery and revolution”.Jane Eyre was an outstanding representation of the early female literary works.Charlotte Bronte profoundly produced a totally refreshed female character image---Jane Eyre who possessed strong rebellious spirit and sense of gender.Through Jane Eyre,Charlotte described the awakening of female subjectivity and discussed the concern about the obstacles of women's liberation by the traditional society.In this thesis,the author tries to make a comparative analysis of the female prospective through two versions of translation of Jane Eyre.The two chosen versions were translated by a male translator Huang Yuanshen and a female translator Zhu Qingying respectively.Based on the comparative study of the two versions,the paper shows the different features of the two versions on female characters reproduction,male character reproduction and reproduction of Jane's image.It also focuses on the differences of the two versions on lexical,syntactical and textual level.The paper especially focuses on the feminist approach of the female translator.The comparison shows that a female translator can often convey the features of female language,female image and female identity more accurately than a male translator.Such natural advantages may allow her to produce a translation work much closer to the original text than a male translator would have,therefore the translated text would be closer to the original text.In conclusion,female translators are usually more sensitive about gender differences.They apply some feminist translation strategies to affirm the subjectivity and visibility of heroine and can deal with the tone of the language better.Though Chinese feminist translators are more moderate because of different culture and social background,comparative study in this thesis shows that there are still gender differences in such works.Translators'social gender is an important element that can not be ignored.Therefore,the feminist translation theory is quite helpful in guiding the present study.