Translators play the leading role in the translating process。Many factors such as translator’s linguistic competence, personal preference and their subjective thoughts can affect translator’s subjectivity。
Hermeneutics can be defined as the science and methodology of interpreting texts。 Many outstanding figures make contributions to its developments, such as Aster, W。Dilthey, Heidegger, Gadamer and Schleiermacher。 To scientifically and systematically study translator’s subjectivity, this thesis use George Steiner’s fourfold Hermeneutic motion as the theoretical foundation。
2。 Literature Review
2。1The Studies on the Translator's Subjectivity Abroad
Since the “cultural turn” in western translation study in the 1970s,scholars began to pay attention to translator’s creativity and subjectivity。they gradually realized that translation is an activity of culture communication instead of a process of language transfer。 “the translator, as the long-ignored subject of translation, should be given the most attention and emphasis in the translation studies, for translation is a creative artist activities。” (Yuan 20)
In 1923, W。 Benjamin wrote an essay titled “The Task of the Translator” In the article, he declares that “The task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the original。 Unlike a work of literature, translation does not find itself in the center of the language forest but on the outside facing the wooded ridge。” (Benjamin 47) he considered that translators should break through the constraint of the source texts,and use vocabulary, various figures and resources to enrich the target language in the process of translation。
Lefevere thinks translation must be controlled by the history or translator and authorities’ ideology, and it can not truly reflect the features of the original。 Therefore, translation is a part of the rewrite。 Rewrite is the way of continuation of the life of the original, thus has great power。 Lefevere and Susan Bassnett write a book titled: “translation history and culture”。 “But the translator’s most essential duty, the one that crowns all others, is to try to reproduce the effect the author produced, in every instance。 He must be able to produce the same beautiful passages, as far as possible, or at least the same number of beautiful passages。” (Lefevere and Bassnett 38) They point out the latest development trend of translation studies, and argues that translation studies have been going out from formalism stage, thus should adapt to a wider range of social and cultural context, translation just like "rewrite", it can create a new image of the text。
Susan Bassnett is a famous translation theorist and poet。 Her "translation studies" (1980) successfully predicted that translation studies will be emerged as a serious and independent discipline。 One important principle of her translation theories: Translation is intracultural or intercultural。 She stressed cultural perspective in translation study views culture as its unit, the functional equivalence of different culture as means, and the cultural transformation is the purpose of translation。
2。2 The Studies on the Translator's Subjectivity in China
Influenced by the Western “cultural turn”, translators and scholars in china also done researches on the translator's subjectivity。 In the last two decades, the Chinese academic circle has made great achievements on the research of translator's subjectivity。 文献综述
“In my view, the complete and truthful pattern reflecting the feature of translation should be summed as author-original text-translator-translated text-reader。 Like the other literature activities, the subject of literary translation is human beings, namely, the author, the translator and the reader。 The original text and the translated text are the objects they create which function as the tool and medium for ideas exchange。 The translator undoubtedly lies in the central position and plays the most active role in the whole creative activities because translator is the reader of the original text and author of translated text。” (Yang 3), Yang claims that translator is the center of the whole process of translation。 从乔治斯坦纳阐释学翻译观看张谷若译《苔丝》中的译者主体性(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_88023.html