A Contrastive Study On Translator's Subjectivity In The English Versions Of Red Sorghum And Frog From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

Traditional translation theories centered on texts and original authors have been dominant for a long time,although these translation theories ignore the important role of translators as participants in the translation process.With the “cultural turn” in the translation field in the 1970 s,the role of translators began to be valued.More and more scholars started to study translators' subjectivity.As an important translator to translate Chinese literary works,Howard Goldblatt has translated a large number of Chinese literary works,especially the works by Mo Yan.The first Mo Yan's work he translated was Red Sorghum and the latest one was Frog.The two translated versions came out 21 years apart.But so far,the contrastive study on the translator's subjectivity related to these two works is still few and far between.Therefore,this thesis selects Goldblatt's earliest translated work Red Sorghum and latest translated work Frog as the research subjects,aiming at exploring the following two aspects:(1)Has Goldblatt's subjectivity changed in translating Red Sorghum and Frog during 21 years?(2)If there is any change,what are the possible reasons behind his change?By means of comparative analysis and quantitative analysis,the author analyzes Goldblatt's translation strategies adopted in two periods,so as to reveal the translator's subjectivity embodied thereby.By making a contrastive and quantitative study on translated versions from lexical level,syntactic level as well as textual level,this author finds that Goldblatt's subjectivity has experienced a great change from domestication to the tendency of foreignization in the choice of translation strategies,which is reflected in his translation of words,sentences and paragraphs.Besides,based on Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics Theory,the author makes explorations into the possible reasons for the change of Goldblatt's subjectivity.The results of the research show that the change of Goldblatt's subjectivity can be attributed to historicity of understanding and fusion of horizons.To be specific,Goldblatt mainly adopts domestication strategy in his early translated work Red Sorghum,which is related to the temporary historical background,the translation purpose and the consideration of target language readers.In 1990 s,the world was in the state with “only super power and multi-great power” where the America struggled to maintain its leading position in dealing with international and regional affairs,but only to find that was challenging.Conflicts between different cultures continued to intensify,and the gap between the North and South economies tended to enlarge.Therefore,America was hostile to China,also hostile to Chinese literature.What's worse,a large number of distinguished American writers sprout up at that time,they produced a large quantity of excellent works.American literature developed quickly.By contrast,Chinese literature remained marginalized those years even though Chinese government had taken some measures to improve this situation.In this situation,Goldblatt decidedto translate Red Sorghum after he had read it,because he believed that this book would gain more popularity to western people.By contrast,in his latest translated work Frog,Goldblatt tends to employ foreignization strategy more often,influenced by the enhancement of Chinese national strength,the implement of a series of cultural development strategies including culture going-out,and the popularity of Mo Yan after winning Nobel Prize abroad,as well as the acknowledgement towards Chinese culture around the world.The change of translation strategy from domestication to foreignization reflects the alteration of translator's subjectivity.It is hoped that this study may enrich the research perspective of translator's subjectivity and provide insight and reference for the translation of Chinese literary works,promoting Chinese culture going-out.