On The Influence Of Translator’s Identity Upon Translation

As a representative work of Chicana literature, The House on Mango Street depicts Mexican American’s living conditions and reveals social issues such as gender inequality and social discrimination in simple, terse, poetic and childish language. There are three Chinese versions of The House on Mango Street, a simplified-Chinese version by a biochemistry post-doctor published by Yilin Press, a traditional-Chinese version by a primary school student in Taiwan and another traditional-Chinese version by an English associate professor in Taiwan. However, the two traditional-Chinese versions have rarely received any academic attention in the field of translation studies though there are a few studies on the simplified-Chinese version. The author of this thesis conducts a comparative analysis of the three Chinese versions from the perspectives of reception aesthetics and identity theory with a view to exploring influence of translator’s identity on translation and their guidance on translation study.Under the guidance of reception aesthetics and identity theory, this thesis demonstrates the fact that translators with different identities adopt different strategies for the source text due to their different understanding, which in turn results in various target texts. Role identity affects the interpretation of the source text as well as its recreation. Baby Sui as a girl in a primary school understands the source text as a children’s book and deletes some information while translating. Her version features fluent, simple, and colloquial language, but her interpretation results in a departure from the original themes and style. As an English translation professor and a professional translator, Xavier Lin interprets the source text from a professional perspective which well grasps the style, themes, and cultural messages. He has an outstanding performance in retaining poetic features and cultural messages but his diction is too formal. Pan Pa takes this translation job for the first time so he interprets the source text like a common reader. His inflexibility in dealing with the text leads to an unsatisfactory target text, whereas translation versions of some cultural terms are acceptable. In a word, the author holds that Baby Sui’s version can be published as a child’s book and Xavier Lin’s version is an excellent translation. However, Pan’s version should be improved in many ways. In addition, translators’ different identities have a great impact on translation, especially on the transference of cultural messages, representation of poetic features and language. And it has been proved that both reception aesthetics and identity theory bring a new perspective on the study of translator’s identity influence on translation, guiding translation studies in the future.