On Factors Influencing Translator’s Subjectivity

For quite a long time, scholars in translation field focused on the nature of translation, translation criteria and translation methods and skills. However, there are few systematical studies on the subject of translation--translators (Mu Lei,2003), which brings translators into a marginal status and their key roles have been ignored. Since the "cultural turn" in the1970s, the focus of translation studies has shifted from linguistic studies to culture-oriented ones, making translators become research focus. Studies on translator’s subjectivity mainly concentrate on translator’s status, the definition and factors influencing translator’s subjectivity. But researches concerning factors which influence the translator’s subjectivity have mostly remained at the theoretical level, instead of analyzing it in the combination with some concrete translation works.Howard Goldblatt, Ge Haowen as his Chinese name, has been engaged in studying and translating modern and contemporary Chinese literature for a long time. His translation works have been studied from several perspectives, but most studies are concentrated on some novels, such as Wolf Totem, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Turbulence. Red Sorghum, Goldblatt gives his subjectivity to full play, is the product of the interaction of the factors influencing translator’s subjectivity. However, it has never been systematically studied from the perspective of factors influencing Howard Goldblatt’s subjectivity so far.The thesis, on the one hand, makes an analysis of five main factors constraining translator’s subjectivity, including the purpose of translation, poetics, ideology and the translator’s cultural and linguistic competence. On the other hand, by making a comparative study between Red Sorghum and Honggaoliang Jiazu, the thesis analyzes how Goldblatt’s subjectivity is restricted by the five factors mentioned above from four aspects, namely the selection of Red Sorghum, poetical rewriting of Red Sorghum, plot rearrangement and the diction of words. The diction of words includes three parts: religious and political words, culture-loaded words and nonconventional color words. The author hopes that this thesis can enrich the study of Howard Goldblatt’s Red Sorghum, as well as deepen our understanding of factors which influence the translator’s subjectivity.