A Study On The Translator's Subjectivity In Literary Translation

The Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai is the greatest late Qing Dynasty vernacular courtesan novel written in the Wu dialect. Handing down the tradition of "Wonderful Book Style" and opening an era for "New Urban Legend" of Shanghai style literature, the novel provides vivid pictures of brothel girls' life in late Qing Dynasty. Its English version, published in the United States with the efforts of Eileen Chang and Eva Hung, is of great importance because it has filled the blank in Wonderful Book translation history.Research shows that in the English version of the Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai Eileen Chang fully displays such traditional and modern factors as language, culture, artistic taste, and life outlooks. Meanwhile, her choice of the translation strategy and method is a strong indication that the translator's subjectivity does play a very important role in translation practice. Obviously Eileen Chang is very unique in this regard and her translation of the Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai therefore deserves to be studied.In translation history, the translator's identity and role has long been overlooked, leading to a marginal status of the translator and ultimately a lack of the translator's creativity. With the development of translation studies, however, the translator's status has gradually been recognized. By playing a dynamic role, the translator is regarded as a positive practitioner and decision-maker in literary translation.By using the descriptive translation method, the thesis analyzes the translator's subjectivity in literary translation as is exemplified by the Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai. A brief account of the novel's English version is given, followed by literature review which dwells on the translator's subjectivity and distinguishes between the translator's subjectivity and translation subjectivity. In further discussions, the author argues that the translator's subjectivity decides on his/her choice of translation subject, strategy and method in the translation process. The core part of the thesis gives a descriptive study of the translator's subjectivity by citing examples from the Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai. In the concluding part, emphasis is once again laid on the translator's subjectivity in literary translation. The author's contribution, the significance and limitations are pointed out for further research.