Traveling Theory: Acception And Absorption

To criticize the subjectivity philosophy from different angles is an important task ofthe western postmodern translation studies. These criticisms are partly absorbed andpartly transformed in the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translation studies becauseof social,historical and academic reasons. This dissertation tries to probe the criticisms ofthe subjectivity philosophy in the five schools of the western postmodern translationstudies mainly influencing the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion in the Chinese translation studies,investigate the acception of these criticisms by the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinesetranslation studies,discuss the causes of the absorption and transformation,and evaluatecritically the absorption and transformation of these criticisms by the Zhu‐ti‐xingdiscussion,and based on which the dissertation also shows the author's view on thedevelopment of the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion in the Chinese translation studies.This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter One introduces the researchsubject with a review of the past research to the question under consideration. The finalaim of the research,the methods being used and a brief study plan are also included.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the criticisms of the subjectivity philosophy in thewestern postmodern translation studies,including the historical backgrounds,themanifestation,the contribution for the translation studies and the limitation of thecriticisms. The five schools analyzed in this chapter are the modern hermeneuticstranslation studies,the deconstruction translation studies, the cultural turn in translationstudies,the post‐colonialism translation studies and the postmodern feminism translationstudies,which mainly influence the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion in the Chinese translationstudies. The Chinese translation studies are very familiar with the five schools,but notwith the criticisms of the subjectivity philosophy within,which,however,are necessaryto a further understanding of those five schools.Chapter Three analyzes three factors influencing the acception: 1,the Chinese socialand cultural context. The traditional Chinese social, cultural and political factors,theabsence of a tradition of the admiration of reason,the features of the modern history,the political context of the social transformation from the 1980s until today；2,thetranslation of the word subject/subjectivity,including the interaction between thetranslation and the social and cultural factors；3,the features of the construction oftranslation studies as a discipline,including the features of the Chinese discipline system,the influence of the features for the development of translation studies,and theimportance of the influence for the acception of the criticisms of the subjectivityphilosophy in the western postmodern translation studies by the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion ofthe Chinese translation studies.Chapter Four mainly evaluates critically the acception (the absorption andtransformation) of the criticisms by the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion in the Chinese translationstudies. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part is the absorption,includingthe criticisms of the notion of fidelity in the traditional Chinese translation studies and theshift from the unitary angle to the multi‐angle in translation studies. The notion of fidelityis very important in the traditional Chinese translation studies,but is itheoreticallyuntenable, so in the Zhu‐ti‐xing Discussion, many scholars use the five schools mentionedabove for reference to criticize this notion severely from different angles in a theoreticaland systematic way. The unitary angle also plays a very important role in the traditionalChinese translation studies, and people usually evaluate the quality of translation with thestandard of fidelity. But in the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion, many scholars are gradually used tostudying translation from different angles with the consideration of social, ideological andcultural factors. The second part is the transformation:1,the emphasis on the conclusioninstead of the argumentation. The careful argumentation that the notion of fidelity isuntenable in the western postmodern translation studies is usually absent in theZhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translation studies；2,the emphasis on the negativeside instead of the positive side. There is a positive side in the criticisms of the five schoolsthat shows some hope of the five schools for the future of the world. The positive side isdifferent in the five schools,and is an important distinction of the different schools. TheZhu‐ti‐xing discussion in the Chinese translation studies pays more attention to thenegative side of the five schools. Many scholars emphasize the negative meaning of somepostmodern concepts,such as the former understanding,the fusion of horizons, differance,to criticize the central role the notion of fidelity plays in translation and provethe justified existence of the misinterpretation. This ignorance of the positive side of thefive schools is obvious,and it is maybe due to the fact that the focus of attention in theZhu‐ti‐xing discussion is not on the original meaning of the western postmoderntranslation studies；3,different standpoints:periphery or from periphery to centre. Thefive schools keep to a periphery standpoint and try to include the experience of marginalgroups into the mainstream knowledge production without an intention of replacing theway of the mainstream knowledge production. These criticisms in the westernpostmodernism translation studies are used for reference to a strategy of a standpointfrom periphery to center by the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translation studies.Many scholars hope the western postmodern translation studies can help to clear the oldideas unfavorable to the development of translation studies；4,different attitudes towardsthe dominant ideology. The western postmodern translation studies often criticize thedominant ideology severely, but the Zhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translationstudies usually keeps consistent with the dominant ideology. The third part is theadvantages and disadvantages of the absorption and transformation, including a newunderstanding of some problems, such as the evaluation of the notion of fidelity, the roleof the translator and the value of translation studies, the development of the translationdiscipline, the reformation of translation studies, too much emphasis on the value of thetreason of the translator, the spreading of nihilism in translation, and so on.The last chapter is the summary of the whole dissertation, including the conclusionof the features of the travel of the western postmodern translation studies in theZhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translation studies, the absorption andtransformation of the travel, and presents the author's views about the trend of theZhu‐ti‐xing discussion of the Chinese translation studies. the Chinese translation studiesshould be tolerant towards the western theories,and at the same time should be deeplyrooted in the Chinese reality.