A Study On Translator’s Subjectivity In Tales Of Hulan River From The Perspective Of Cultural Translation Theory

Hulanhe Zhuan revolves around Xiao Hong’s childhood,depicting the story of ordinary people in Hulan County.The story happened in the early twentieth century in northeastern China,and there are amounts of cultural resources about Chinese tradition and the northeastern region in this book.According to cultural translation theory,translation is not only the conversion of languages,but the exchange between cultures.To achieve cultural functional equivalence,translators play subjectivity by dealing with different cultural units.Thus,this study analyzes translator’s subjectivity based on cultural translation theory.A descriptive research on the English version of Hulanhe Zhuan is conducted to explore the embodiment of Goldblatt’s subjectivity in translation process especially in cultural resources translation.Translator’s subjectivity,from the perspective of Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory,consists of purposiveness,initiative and passiveness.Purposiveness lies in the selection of original texts,the identification of translation units and style of the translator.Initiative influences the adoption of translation strategies and techniques.Passiveness,which is caused by language differences,cultural vacancy,readers’aesthetics and translators’understanding,is reflected in the loss of linguistic and cultural aspects.It is found out that Howard Goldblatt chooses the target text due to his preference for Hulanhe Zhuan and Chinese culture.Driven by this purpose,Howard plays his initiative by the adoption of various translation techniques.He endeavors to achieve cultural functional equivalence while being faithful to the original text,and preserves the favor of the source language culture.This thesis not only enriches the research ideas of the translator’s subjectivity,but also is a reference for the translation of Chinese literary works in the future.