From The Perspective Of Philosophical Hermeneutics: Translator Subjectivity And Beyond In Literary Translation

A translator is an important even key factor in translational activities. The translation motive, translation strategy, translation act and translation competence can have noticeable influence upon the production of a final translated text. Being an individual possessing his\her own thinking, cultural stand and values, a translator's subjectivity can be embodied in the selection of original texts, choice of translation strategy, resolution of translation difficulties and the pursuit of certain translation purpose. The translator as an individual decides how a translated text is to be carried out; and translators as a whole plays an important role in intercultural communication and facilitating the development of human culture. However, most researches on translator have only focused on his\her linguistic competence, translation skills and functions in cultural communication, and less attention has been paid to how the translator, as a crucial human factor that influences the translation process with his\her motivation, attitude, cultural orientation, values, prejudice, horizon, historicity, etc. Over two thousand years, many metaphors for the translator, such as tongue-man, go-between, wordsmith, servant, traitor, a dancer with shackles, translation machine, etc, have constituted a vivid picture of how a translator should be. Traditional outlooks on translation view translation a transfer at linguistic level, which caused the study of the translator to be only an assessment of a translation at linguistic level instead of evaluating their contribution from the angles of literature and culture. The Cultural Turn in 1970s provides a platform for theorists in paying more attention to the translator, which brings the study of translator subjectivity into the circle of translation studies. Scholars at home and abroad have gradually embarked on the study of translator subjectivity from various different theoretical perspectives, among which philosophical hermeneutics is an important theoretical foundation.In philosophical hermeneutics, translation is an interpretation, and in most cases an intercultural interpretation; and a translator is just an interpreter in this course. This thesis, based upon modern philosophical hermeneutics, deals with the subjectivity of the translator as an interpreter in translating."Prejudice"elucidates that in understanding a text; people can never take certain"object"stand and transcend temporal and spatial distance in order to have a purely objective understanding of an object. Gadamer claims that the prejudice of an individual constitutes the historicity of understanding. The historicity of the translator plus the openness of the meaning of literary texts make intentional mistranslation ineluctable."Effective history"presents a dialectical unity between historical texts and interpreters; temporal distance almost always makes it impossible to restore the environment in which a text was created. This is the philosophical root of the diversification of the translations as the fruits of interpretation."Fusion of horizons"is where the core of philosophical hermeneutics lies, and more importantly a philosophical description of translating as an interpretation."Two fusions of horizons"is an elucidation for translating in its essence. In fusion of horizons, a text is no longer a pure object, but a partner possessing identity of being a subject. Hence,"fusion of horizons'as well as its"dialogue"essence is an embodiment of"inter-subjectivity"between the interpreter and the text in understanding and translating.Translation is also a social activity. In the mega-context of society and culture, translator subjectivity can unquestionably restricted mainly by ideology, readership and the social environment in which the translator lives. The significance of translator subjectivity lies in the perpetuation of literary works, the establishment of translation literature and the re-translation of literary works; the perpetuation and re-translation of literary works have theoretical basis in philosophical hermeneutics.