The Translator's Subjectivity In Dialectical Unity Of Subjective Initiative And Restrictiveness

In the development of translation theory,the translator has long been placed in a marginal position,being known as a matchmaker or servant,and the translator's subjectivity has long been suppressed.It was with the coming of the “cultural turn” in translation studies in the 1970 s that the status of translators has been given more and more attention,and the study of the translator's subjectivity has been attracting growing attention.This thesis,taking the first “Red” novel that Sidney Shapiro translated as a case study,attempts to carry on a more comprehensive discussion on the translator's subjectivity from its two aspects—the translator's subjective initiative and restrictiveness,so as to provide more references for the later study of the translator's subjectivity.The research finds that the translated version Daughters and Sons is a product of Sidney Shapiro's full exertion of his subjectivity,fully reflecting the dialectical unity of the two aspects of the translator's subjectivity—subjective initiative and restrictiveness.Sidney Shapiro successfully realizes the dialectical unity of these two aspects in his dealing with the original structure and language form as well as the cultural factors in translation.He achieves a balance between respecting restrictiveness and exerting his subjective initiative which is directly represented in his flexible choice of appropriate translation methods in order to break the obstacles in language and culture and ensure a full success of the purpose and value of his translation.Firstly,translators are bound to be restricted by the original text from its content to its form and then to style,but Sidney Shapiro fully exerts his subjective initiative to make some adjustments to the original structure and language form.He replaces the traditional sentence to sentence translation method with a method of taking chapters as translation units,and breaks the original form of chapter novel by deleting all chapter headings in the original text.In terms of dealing with the language form,Sidney Shapiro manages to make his translation conform to the aesthetic standards and expectations of the target readers by omitting some redundant paragraphs and adding some explanatory words or sentences.Secondly,faced with the influence and restriction of such cultural factors as ideology,patronage and poetics,Sidney Shapiro flexibly chooses his translation skills to rewrite the original preface into one that is of strong political color,and he also selects some folk songs to translate so as to highlight the content that is in line with the mainstream ideology.Taking the patronage into account,Sidney Shapiro chooses to amplify the heroes' positive image and simplify their negative image so as to make his translation serve the political purpose of New China.Meanwhile,Sidney Shapiro exerts his subjective initiative to change the original language form and style by adding logical connectors and deleting the redundant and exaggerated modifiers to make his translation conform to the poetics of the target language.