Manifestation Of Translator’s Subjectivity In Literary Translation

In traditional translation theories, the quality of a translated work is determined by whether it is ST-centered and loyal to the original author’s intention, thus reducing the translator and the translated text to a marginal position for a long period. The1970s saw a "cultural turn" in translation studies that initiated a TL-centered approach, and translation study has stepped into a new era. With the development of the cultural turn, the translator’s subjectivity has become an important theoretical issue in translation studies.The Kite Runner, the first novel by Afghan American author Khaled Hosseini, has made a hit in the American market. After the introduction of the novel by the mainland and Taiwan publishers, the mainland translator Li Jihong and the Taiwanese translator Li Jingyi turned the novel into Chinese respectively. The two Chinese versions both got acknowledgement and praise from their readers, and also impacted the Chinese market greatly.The thesis analyzes manifestations of translator’s subjectivity in literary translation from three perspectives, i.e. understanding, selecting, and expressing in the process of translation and influences on the translator’s subjectivity. While there have been a lot of studies conducted on this issue, most of them have taken classical novels of the world literature for their case studies, little attention has been paid so far to contemporary bestsellers even though it is in the latter that the translator’s subjectivity finds more significant manifestations. This thesis conducts a comparative study on the two Chinese versions of The Kite Runner, aiming at probing into the specific manifestations of translator’s subjectivity in translation, including the influences being imposed on the translator.The purpose of the thesis is to render clear the function of the translator’s subjectivity in translation in the hope that it could enhance our understanding of how a translator should balance all the constrains in order to come up with better translations.