On Translators’ Visibility In Literary Translation

As a historic cross-culture activity, translation has a long history stretching forthousands of years. As a subject of translation, the translator is an indispensable roleshouldering the important tasks of promoting communication among different nations.For a translator, the fundamental task is to transmit and interpret cultural differencescarried by the source text and the target text. Nevertheless, the study of the translatoris marginal in translation studies until translation theories have developed profoundly.The translator is stepping on the historical stage and becoming visible in the spotlightdue to the change happened in translation studies. It is worthy to mention LawrenceVenuti among figures who make contributions to the change. Guided by Venuti’stheory, the thesis carries out a case study on three English versions of Lu Xun’s shortstory Kong Yiji, which are translated by Edgar Snow, William A. Lyell and JuliaLovell respectively, varying from one translation to another. Aiming to illustrate thetranslators’ visibility in literary translation, the thesis will analyze these texts fromfive perspectives: translators’ translation intentions, selection of source texts,translators’ personal styles, creativity.Lawrence Venuti advocates foreignizing translation embodying the linguistic andcultural distinctions between the source text and the target text. Meanwhile, it rendersincreasing importance to the translator’s role. Based on deconstruction, Venuti’sforeignizing translation theory is an extension of Schleiermacher’s translation theoryunder the background of post-colonialism. According to Venuti, foreignizationchanges the ways translations are read and produced. It also highlights the translator’ssubjectivity.Values of this study lie in three aspects. First is to build a classic and profoundimage of Lu Xun by analyzing and evaluating the translations of Lu Xun’s works inChinese-foreign literary exchange history. Second is to intervene and alter Lu Xun’sfading status in the mainstream of modern Chinese literature by re-reading Lu Xun’sworks. Third is to exert a thorough discussion on the translator’s visibility in literarytranslation by comparing three translators’ products of the same source text.