On The Translator’s Subjectivity: A Case Study Of Young John Allen’s Translation

In the late Qing Dynasty, a number of western missionaries came to China andconstituted a special group. With diversified cultural resources and various socialresources of their own, many of them had great influence on Chinese society of thattime, and a representative figure was Yong John Allen, an American missionary whospent47years in China during the late Qing Dynasty. He was mentioned as amissionary, a translator, an educator as well as a journalist, with personal experience inthe great social changes of that era. In terms of translation, he was appointed as atranslator in Kiangnan Arsenal and an English teacher in Foreign Language Legation,and he also played a core role in the Christian Literature Society of China and Schooland Textbook Series Committee. His greatest achievements included the translations ofEducation in Japan, History of the War between China and Japan, Women in All Landsand other dozens of translations, contributing to the spreading of western learning inChina and various reforms in modern China. By now, most studies on Allen have beenfocused on the four aspects of history, education, newspaper and religion, and somehave also included the cultural and translational aspects.Based on findings of previous studies, this thesis employs relevant views of thetranslator’s subjectivity as its theoretical basis and historical research and translationalresearch as its methodology. Allen’s translation activities and some of his translations aswell as his subjective features in both manifestations and constraints are paid muchattention. Contributions and limitations of Allen’s translations and his subjectivefeatures and their effects are also analyzed so as to gain a more systematic,comprehensive and objective understanding of the translator himself and his translationpractice. The case study of Allen aims to reveal the interaction between his translatedworks and Chinese society in the late Qing Dynasty, and explore the overall features ofwestern missionaries’ translation activities.This thesis firstly explains research background, research meaning, researchpurpose and research content, indicating the intention to achieve an objective analysisand understanding of Allen’s translation practice with the concept of the “cultural turn”.Secondly, it provides a brief preview of the theoretical basis of the translator’ssubjectivity, the rise of the translator’s status and the innovation in the translator’ssubjectivity. The Introduction is followed by the two main chapters. Chapter Two manifests the translator’s subjectivity in Allen’s translation from four aspects, namely,the source texts, translation strategies, translation intentions and language styles. Basedon Lefevere’s view of constraints, Chapter Three makes an analysis of the ideologicaland poetological factors that restrain Allen’s translation. For ideological Constraints,two types of ideology are discussed, namely, the political and cultural ideology. Inaddition, other constraints such as the factors of times, the author’s cultural identitiesand knowledge structure are also mentioned. Finally, the thesis concludes that Allen’stranslated works are the very manifestation of the translator’s subjectivity underconstraints of ideological and poetical factors and so on, and points out its limitationsand gives some suggestions for further study.