A Study Of Translator’s Subjectivity In News Translation Based On Skopos Theory

Since the cultural turn in translation studies from the 1970 s, the concept of translators’ invisibility and subjectivity provides a new perspective for translation studies, the scholars have a more in-depth mining of the manipulator that behind translation. The role of the translator in translation began to really get the attention of people, the study of translator’s subjectivity received the attention it deserves and gradually going deeper. In the translation activity, the translators are not only the sponsors and the actors, they are independent to various degrees and do not exist depend on the object. For the realization of the purpose, the translator, as the main body, exert the initiative and creativity in the translation activity is called the translators’ subjectivity.This paper intends to interpret the translators’ subjectivity in news translation from the perspective of Skopos theory. Skopos theory was founded by the German scholar Hans Vermeer and it is the main theory of German Functionalist Approach. According to Skopos theory, any behavior is purposeful, this is also the case for the translation. Skopos theory points out that translation is a kind of purposeful activity that based on the original language text. The purpose of the translation behavior is the highest criterion for the whole translation process. Translation strategies adopted by the translator are determined by the purpose of the target text, but not stick to the original text. Just as Nord said, “the end justifies the means”.(Nord, 2001:29) In other words, the objective decides the translation method. There are three rules in the Skopos theory, the core rule is the Skopos rule, and next comes the coherence rule and the fidelity rule.Under the guidance of Skopos theory, the translators fully exert their subjectivity in accepting the source text and recreating the target text on the basis of their purpose. This paper expounds the translators’ subjectivity in choosing and interpreting the source language text and in the process of translators’ recreation of the target text.The translators’ subjectivity plays more obviously and completely in news translation. With an accelerating rate of economic globalization, people began to lay more and more emphasis on cross-cultural news translation. Some attempts have been made to probe news translation methods and strategies by translators. Nonetheless, because of the special genre and the extreme purpose of news texts, only if the translators play their subjectivity more fully, can the news be translated more perfectly. In addition, in the framework of Skopos theory, much importance has been attached to the target texts readers and cultural particularity of target language. All of these provide a favourable theoretical basis for news translation. This paper specifically explores purposeful news translation from the perspective of rules of Skopos theory. This paper also probes into translators’ subjectivity in application of proper strategies in news translation.The last chapter is the conclusion part, in which the author sums up the conclusive findings from the above-mentioned parts. The news as a text with extremely strong purposes, the wonderful translation can help to the flow of information and the cultural exchange and transmission between countries. And it can strengthen the soft power of our country. According to Skopos theory, translators should play their subjectivity and creativity fully to insure the successful news translation. At the same time, the writer indicates the limitations of the paper and makes some suggestions for the future study.