A Study On The English Version Of The Garlic Ballads From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

In the process of translation,the translator should be viewed as the most pivotal element.Nevertheless,the translator's subjective status has not been recognized in the sector of translation until the occurrence of “Cultural Turn” in the 1970 s,which pushes the translator's subjectivity into the realm of translation study.The translator's initiative displayed in translation is named as translator's subjectivity,which is exerted in order to achieve his own translation purpose.Under the guidance of the theory,translation studies shift from Author-centered Theory to Translator-centered Theory.Meanwhile,an increasing number of authors are paying attention to the study of translator's subjectivity.As a long-length novel written by Mo Yan at his early stage,The Garlic Ballads focuses on a series of conflict stories between peasants and the local government in Gaomi County of Shandong Province,which are triggered by “Garlic Incident”,revealing the author's great concerns and the rural civilizations.At present,there are quite a lot of research concerning The Garlic Ballads while there are inadequate appreciation of the novel and the studies on its English version.On this ground,an analysis on Goldblatt's rendering would not only provide new contents for translation study,but also contribute to national cultural output.This research aims at strengthening the recognition of translator's subjectivity in translation,and further revealing its vital significance in the translated version.Under the guidance of translator's subjectivity,the thesis divides the theory into two aspects—the macro and the micro.The former level includes the selection of the original work,the translation purpose and the selection of translation strategies while the lexical,sentence and textual aspects are contained in the micro perspective.Interpretations towards the cases in The Garlic Ballads aim to display translator's subjectivity in Goldblatt's translation.Conclusions will be drawn as the following: 1)Goldblatt's full exertion of his subjectivity can be discovered in the macro aspect.Firstly,he attaches great importance to the selection of the ST and adheres to his own principles about the selection.Secondly,the most vital translation purpose for him is to meet the requirements of the target readers.Lastly,in respect to the selection of translation strategies,Goldblatt adopts domestication on the premise of being loyal tothe ST.His translation purpose determines his translation strategies as he takes initiative to meet the taste of the target readers.All his subjectivity mobilized in the macro level contributes to a better preparation before interpretations and lays the foundation for the micro level.2)His subjectivity is also displayed in the micro perspective.By adopting the domestication,Goldblatt displays his subjectivity on lexical level.Both the word selection and the handling of cultural loaded words are the concentrated and immediate reflection of the translator's subjectivity,being conducive to individual image shaping and atmosphere settings.Due to disparate expressive approaches between Chinese and English,the translator's subjectivity is also demonstrated at sentence level.By means of adjusting the sentence order,transforming the sentence subject,rearranging the sentence connecting methods and recasting the whole sentence,full play of Goldblatt's subjectivity is elaborated on sentence level,making the TT more readable and local for target readers to peruse.Besides,translator's subjectivity can be detected in textual domain by altering the text type and abridging some meaningless or obscure parts in the ST.Therefore initiative made by Goldblatt on the micro level endows the TT with stronger vitality and richer readability.To sum up,the macro level of translator's subjectivity provides preparations and foundations for its micro manifestation while the latter offers support for the exertion of the macro aspect.Hence both two aspects make each other possible.The thesis verifies the subjective status of the translator and his pivotal role in the process of decoding.Therefore we should advocate the further research on translator's subjectivity in order to offer much more practical approaches and valuable experience.With a particular emphasis on the status of the translator,the study replenishes the theory and provides inspiration for constructing its complete theoretical framework.What's more,by means of analyzing translation strategies applied in other translated work,translators could obtain new considerations and approaches and a clearer recognition of their own responsibilities as well.Besides,it is conducive to overseas transmission for Chinese literature artistic value and further cultural output.