On Subjectivity Of Translation

Translation is an activity closely related to culture and thought communication. Translation plays an important role in language, literature, art, scientific progress, and even social development.Since the 1970s, translation studies in the west have undertaken great changes which help expand the subjects of translation studies and broaden the scale of translation studies. Since then, people did not stick to the research merely on translation standards. With the development of descriptive translation in the 1970s and 1980s, the role of subjectivity of translator in the translation process has been gradually observed, in that the subjectivity of translator is vital importance in any kind of translation activities. However, at present, no consensus has been reached yet in subjectivity of translation studies at home and abroad. There are four theories concerning the research on subjectivity of translation. The first one is that only the translator is the subject; the second is that the original author and translator are the subjects; the third is that the reader and translator are the subjects; the last theory is that the original author, translator and reader are the subjects. Based on the development of translation subjectivity, the author presents some opinions on it .Of the three parties involved in the operation of translation, namely, the author, the translator and the reader, which one should be regarded as the subject? The thesis investigates this controversial issue in two aspects. In generalized process of translation, the subject of translation is original author, translator and reader, while in narrow translation process, the subject of translation is translator. However in narrow translation process, the subjectivity of translator is different. The narrow translation process can be divided into three stages: SL→SL ', SL '→TL ', TL '→TL. SL represents the source language. SL ' refers to the image of source test in translator's mind. TL ' is the image of translation. TL represents the translation. The translator conducts a careful study of the original as a reader in SL→SL ' process, analyzes the original as a researcher in SL '→TL 'process, expresses the original as a creator and writer in TL '→TL process. At last, The thesis discusses the intersubjectivity in the context of translation.