A Comparative Study On Of Mice And Men's Two Chinese Versions From The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

After the campaign of cultural turn in western translation field,many scholars began to think the relationship between translators and culture in the translating process.Under the influence of this campaign,many new literary thoughts sprung up,for example,deconstructionism,feminism criticism and post-colonialism.Those thoughts revolutionized traditional thoughts and enriched modern translation theories.Then there appeared relevant studies in China and enriched the connotation of translators' subjectivity.The novel Of Mice and Men is the representative work of John Steinbeck,an American writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.This novel contained profound meaning and had a unique linguistic style.In the past years,studies about the novel itself have been emerging.But studies about the translations of the novel are very few.In terms of that,this paper will compare two Chinese versions of the novel from the perspective of translators' subjectivity.Translators' subjectivity contains three basic characteristics-subjective initiative,the passivity and the purposefulness.Under the combination of the three features and the two Chinese versions,this paper mainly compares from three angles.First,it's the analyses of translators' historical backgrounds,including the comparison of expressions about apparel,daily things and behaviors,appellation and translation purposes.This part will reveal that because of the difference of social environment and historical background,translators' expressions would be different.Second,it's about the analyses of the cultural awareness of translators,including analyses of expressions about social culture,religious culture,dialects and vulgarism.This part will reveal that translators' cultural awareness and bilingual capability will influence the final manifestation of translations.Third,it's the research about the restrictions of translators,including the analyses of loyalty to the linguistic style of the original,cultural mistranslation and omissions,and loyalty to the plot.This part will reveal that translators should exert their initiative within a certain limit and it's necessary to be faithful to the writer and the source text.In the end,this paper will illustrate the reasons of the difference and help readers better understand the themes of the novel.With the persisting charm of the novel,it's hoped that translations could also manifest the same fascination.