Three Subjects In Translation And Their Subjectivity

In recent years, as the study of subjectivity in translation has got increasing attention, the argument for subject(s) in translation has become a hot issue of great controversy. Based on different theoretical angles, diversified opinions held by different schools and theorists on the topic can be generally classified into four kinds:the first maintains that the translator is the only subject; the second holds that the source text author (STA) and the translator are both the subjects; the third, however, thinks that the translator and the target text reader (TTR) should be regarded as subjects in translation; as far as the last group is concerned, the ST author, translator and the TT reader should be taken as the three equal subjects in translation. Most of the scholars go along with the first point of view, seeing the translator as the equivalence of subject in translation. With the rise of de-structuralism, the last few decades has seen great ignorance of the ST author’s subjectivity as Roland Bathes declaims "the death of the author". However, with the emergency of the inter-subjectivity theory, whose theoretical foundation is based on the accurate definition of subject, the original author’s subject role is in urgent need of being strengthened and enriched. If the ST author and the TT reader are not definitely defined as subjects, the new theory will not hold water. In the paper, the author’s support goes with the last group as each of the three parts plays a significant role in translation and the paper will try to analyze the subjectivity displayed by the ST author, the translator and the TT reader. Much as all the three parties are subjects in translation, they are not separated and exclusive; instead, they interact with each other and restrict each other to launch a series of talks in translation. Based on this theoretical foundation, the paper will make a careful analysis into the Chinese version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland--《阿丽思漫游奇境记》translated by Zhao Yuanren in terms of the subjectivity of the STA (Lewis Carroll), the translator (Zhao Yuanren) and TT readers.